The View from a Drawbridge

Category: Observation

  • Counting Our Blessings Writ Large: A List of Human Achievement

    I’ve always felt kind of selfish when counting my blessings, because doing so always shines a big old ugly spotlight on the fact that there are countless others who do not have these blessings. But when I’m feeling cynical and bitter about the world, or finding it hard to locate even the sticky residue left…

  • To War or Not to War

    There really hasn’t been a good clean war that everyone could sink their teeth into since World War II. Okay, I’m being sarcastic, but at least we can all agree that Hitler was the bad guy, and people were willing to ration their food and give up their panty hose for the cause. We were…

  • Give me Capitalization or Give me Death!

    When I was a kid, I don’t remember what age, I had a teacher who used to like to give us a list of vocabulary words to memorize. Then we’d have a spelling bee in class. The first time she did this I was one of the last kids standing when she asked me to…

  • My Fridge Magnet Theory

    It has long been my belief that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their refrigerator magnets. Think about it. Your fridge magnets can reflect who or what is important to you, what you are interested in, what you find funny, and where you’ve been. Without a doubt they will indicate…

  • The Plight of Haitian-Dominicans

    It’s a small island. You’d think Haitians and Dominicans would have learned to get along by now. Not so much. In May, the Dominican Republic ruled that if you were born of Haitian parents any time after 1929 (which means, basically, all of them) you would be stripped of your Dominican citizenship and deported. Never…

  • They Love me in Bulgaria

    I must confess that I’m quite obsessed with the statistics page that WordPress so kindly provides us bloggers. I was thrilled a few weeks ago to get the 10,000th view of my blog! Woo hoo! The stats page reveals not only how many people have checked out my blog, but also what countries they’re from,…

  • I Heart October

    Ah, the first brisk chill in the air that heralds the end of the oppressive heat of September! Oktoberfest. The riot of color that makes one fall in love with the trees all over again. Apple cider. The chance to break out a completely different part of my wardrobe. Corn mazes. The renewed energy of…

  • “Toughen Up”

    On the heels of my blog entry “Having Your Heart Broken by a Career Choice” I got a lot of comments from people in the Dental Lab industry, many of which were very constructive and informative and have greatly influenced my concept of what I need to do as I move forward. But just as…

  • Get Off of my Cloud

    As a blogger and a fairly intelligent person, you’d think I’d be up on current events. Not so much. I almost never watch the news. This current trend of expecting the public to live in a world of constant fear makes me sick. And creating news out of non-events, such as what Paris Hilton’s dog…

  • Swimsuit Calendars and Naked Women Mud Flaps—Why Go There?

    Here’s the thing (yeah, yeah, there’s always a thing): those who chafe at being politically correct are people who don’t care about anyone’s feelings other than their own, so there’s really no point in arguing with them. But. There are moments when I’m given the choice of either biting my tongue clean off or speaking…