In the summer of 1518, the city of Strasbourg in France (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) was enjoying a rebirth after many troubling years. The markets were alive, merchants were trading, and the townsfolk were in high spirits, their worries swept away by the promise of a prosperous year. One bright July morning,…

I’m currently at the beach on vacation. The daytime weather has been hot and humid with a slight cooling breeze blowing off the ocean. The nights have been hot as well, but the indoor air conditioning of our rented home is top notch, so sleeping isn’t an issue.  We awoke to dark, threatening clouds this…

I graduated from high school in 1984, and while many things in the world are just the same, many other things are radically different.  First of all, there were no cell phones in 1984. If we wanted to talk to someone on the phone, we either had to be at home or had a dime…

I got into the habit many years ago of asking my son (whenever he was injured) how he rated his pain on a scale from 1 to 10. Inevitably, it was always a 10, but as time passed and he matured, the numbers varied, and the scale became a good gauge for me to discern…

Last week I wrote about my nephew making the decision to get into golf. Having just graduated from college and looking to make his mark on the world, he decided that knowing how to golf would not only be handy in business situations, but also appease his current girlfriend who happens to enjoy the game.…

Growing up, my family always had a corner of the garage reserved for sports equipment. Nothing was new; it was mostly a conglomeration of hand-me-downs that family members had used throughout the years (the majority of it would be considered antiques by today’s standards). I remember a pair of wooden tennis racquets, a few baseball…

The PGA’s U.S. Open was held this past week. The tournament is traditionally considered the hardest test of golf in the calendar year. It is also one of four “majors,” meaning, of all the tournaments on the golf schedule, this is considered the most important, most profitable, and most coveted by the players. If you…

My son just graduated from high school. By my decree, the day after the ceremony, he started his first 40-hour workweek. The goal was not to force him into a career, it was simply my way of immersing him in the reality of what it feels like to be beholden to a job for five…

I drive a black Ford Ranger. It’s a basic truck with few bells and whistles other than heated seats and a cover for the back bed so my golf clubs don’t get wet.  My wife hates trucks and is persistently complaining about my need to own one. My response is always the same: It’s convenient…

My wife and were out shopping recently when we stumbled upon a small concert taking place in a nearby park. It was one of those early evening performances that most cities sponsor throughout the summer months. There were people sitting on blankets in the grass while others had brought beach chairs. A few daring folks…

Vesna Vulovic is a name etched in the annals of miraculous survival — perhaps the most unlikely survival story of all time. She was thrust into the spotlight on Jan. 26, 1972, when she unwittingly became a symbol of human resilience.  A native of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Vesna’s journey to that fateful day began like that…

I never dreamed of being a writer, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was an early morning in 1994, and I was standing in the composition department of the Mountain Times, having been hired the prior year as a part-time graphic artist. Computers were just coming onto…

  I don’t know when it first happened, but one day many years ago, after indulging in a donut, I experienced some odd discomfort in my chest; it was a burning sensation that felt like I had burped up acid. I didn’t initially attribute the feeling to the donut, but after having it occur multiple…

When I was playing basketball in high school, there was a strict rule that no team member was allowed on the ski slopes during the season. Apparently, too many athletes had fallen prey to freak injuries while skiing and cost the school state championships.  I had been involved with basketball since grade school, so I…

When I was in college, my friends and I decided to vacation to Florida during spring break week. One of the guy’s parents lived near Ft. Lauderdale, so we made a plan to drive down in one 24-hour stretch, hang out for a few days, and then drive back. MTV was at its apex at…