Planned Parenthood’s annual fundraising lunch in Tampa is next Tuesday, April 5, at the Straz Center. I go every year, and thinking about this motivated me to tell you about my Uncle Emil and Aunt Elsie.  Read More 

I figured out why so many people are voting for The Donald: They like his baseball cap. Unconsciously, his unconventional dress symbolizes to them a rejection of authority and a refusal to follow the ways of their fathers. Hubby’s father, a Methodist minister, was highly offended by the baseball cap phenomenon when it began to appear prior to his 1991 death. I remember how he had to restrain himself from snatching one off his new grandson-in-law’s head when the kid wore it inside the parsonage.  Read More 

One of the (increasingly fewer) reasons to continue to subscribe to the Tampa Tribune is that, unlike the Times, it runs “Today in History.” Yes, I could read it online, but it’s easier to glance at in Mother Trib. A recent entry caught my eye, that for March 12, 1954: “The Battle of Dien Bien Phu began during the First Indochina War as communist forces attacked French troops, who were defeated nearly two months later.”  Read More 

It’s impossible to follow the news without daily amazement. As more and more voters make it clear that they idolize Donald Trump, my Republican friends look shell-shocked. Their party is coming apart at the seams, with revered leaders openly bad-mouthing fellow Republicans. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham allowed himself to be quoted saying that his party has gone “bat… crazy.” Of course Graham said this at a Washington press club dinner where liquor flows -- but he has not attempted to (as the jargon goes) “walk it back.”  Read More