Have you ever wondered what it is about sports that so excites our young progeny? Or, at least, many of them? I recall that, for some of us, one of the highlights of reaching middle school was the opportunity to participate in school-sponsored team sports for the first time. Unless, of course, one had already been indoctrinated into this realm of activity via little league baseball, or those strange, tiny-person football groups where parents sternly direct their toddlers to just get out there and block and tackle! (There is no way any one of these youngsters would do this of his own volition unless he had a disturbing personality disorder.)

Continue “The Gladiators”

Arched bridges have been around for a long time. According to Wikipedia, the oldest of these might be the Mycenaean Arkadiko bridge in Greece, which dates back to about 1300 B.C. It’s a motley looking thing, built across a culvert with stones that look as though they might prefer not being so close to one another. It looks a bit like something I would probably come up with if tasked with erecting a stone bridge.

It was the Romans who really got the hang of building arch bridges. The Spaniards’ bridges, such as the Alcantara (erected circa 105 A.D.) weren’t too shabby either, using multiple arches to create long spans to build their majestic, multi-level aqueducts.

Continue “Keystones”

My father liked the idea of being self-sufficient. Thus, almost every spring, as the last remnants of the winter snows found their way into the soil, his mind would be drawn to plans for the summer garden.

His enthusiasm for these plantings was probably influenced in part by the victory gardens that Americans were encouraged to set down during both World Wars. These vegetable patches were intended to reduce the demand for store-bought food during those eras and to give folks on the home-front the feeling that they were doing something to help in the fight. Well, Dad liked the idea. Thus, during any given growing season, the bounty from our family plot might have included green beans, cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, carrots, pumpkins, watermelons–and strawberries.

And, yes, that brings us to strawberries.

Continue “The Story of the Reluctant Strawberry Farmer”

This past Easter, or the Saturday prior, I should say, I was about to make my usual trip through the aisles of my local Publix supermarket when, upon entering the store, I was pleasantly distracted by the resplendence of all the cut flowers arrayed about the entryway. During my corporate years, one of my colleagues acquainted me with the joy of having fresh flowers in the house. This person, a senior vice president, would routinely arrange to have fresh cut blooms delivered to his home every week. (He and his wife also had a full-time, live-in maid, who arranged them in vases throughout the house.)

Continue “Petals to the Medals”