When daughter Luan and husband Bob Offer started planning the Open House for their son Dan’s graduation, the goal was to get as many cousins together as possible. Other than funerals and weddings they may never see each other, and never can they all make those occasions. Luan, being a self-designated gynecologist, I mean genealogist, […]
Bylined newspaper columns, especially with pictures of the writer, are personal columns. Jim’s Jottings is one of those. Regular readers (last week’s) may remember I said that would be the last you’d read of THE Open House. I lied. I didn’t mean to, but to write this column, which is intended to promote sympathy, The […]
I live on an increasingly popular, formerly gravel, now blacktopped rural road (or so it was when we moved here in 1971). However, rural it isn’t now. In the past five years over 300 homes have been built in/on/off a 2-mile stretch of my once-quiet street. Increased traffic brings an increasing assortment of people, which […]
Many years ago I asked Lake Orion’s eminent guru and handyman Bud Schaar to hook up a building to the town’s sewers. Some weeks went by with no action. I called Bud to ask why. He said, ‘I’m like the government. First you have to name a committee then appropriate some funds.? He started right […]
Perhaps it was the advent of an approaching birthday, but for some reason I looked up some of my old columns. Goodness gracious, I’ve been writing a personal weekly column for nearly 49 years. I started with a sports column September 2, 1954 while covering the St. Johns High School Redwings for the Clinton County […]
For about two-thirds of a year there’s no such thing as a good tasting tomato in Michigan markets. Oh, they look good. Red, ripe and round, except for the Romas. But for a person who compares tomatoes with luxury cars, the Romas, vine ripened and greenhouse grown tomatoes are the junkyard Edsels of tomatoes. Oh, […]
If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy? Confucius say: ‘Man who sit on jelly roll have rear end in jam.? Sign at propane filling station: ‘Thank heaven for little grills.? * * * Job descriptions, or titles, can make even a common everyday job sound important and even give stature to that worker. […]
When Danny was born to daughter Luan her first words to him were, ‘Hi Sweety. You’re going to Michigan State University.? When Luan’s husband, Bob Offer came into the delivery room his first words were a question: ‘Did you tell him he’s going to MSU?? Thus the lad’s academic future was established. The first day […]
Shades of Rudy Vallee’s My time is Your Time. Well, to me, My Time is Tomato Time. But, my regular reader knows that. Response to previous columns has brought a half dozen ways of cooking the bacon, which is the ‘B? in BLT, which I know you know. The George Foreman grill has been suggested […]
Question: Who or which person, company or organization first started answering your phone calls with voice mail? I think it was government – local, county, state – offices and bureaus within those units. And, with the great, and apparently accepted use of acronyms, here’s one for voice mail: EAS. Electronic Avoidance System. Oh, how many […]