I've admitted before to being brought to tears fairly frequently, and for a variety of reasons and emotions. Oftentimes it's music that triggers the tears, but today it was a movie. What made the tears even more surprising to me was that I already knew the story, since I had read the book that the movie … Continue reading I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Cried So Much During a Movie →

I posted a story the other day about the release of the annual John Lewis Christmas commercial, as well as one by Sainsbury's. Well it seems that I missed several other high quality Christmas commercials. Apparently Christmas commercials in Britain are like the Super Bowl commercials in the U.S. The ads are the highlight of … Continue reading Full Roundup of This Year’s Spectacular Christmas Commercials →

President Obama gets tens of thousands of letters, parcels, and emails every day. Those who write in know that the president himself will most likely not see their message, although someone does read those letters. And sometimes that person is Fiona Reeves, Director of Presidential Correspondence at the White House. She and a group of 45 staffers, 35 … Continue reading Another Reason Why I Love President Barack Obama →

British retailer John Lewis has partnered with ad agency adam&eveDDB once again to create a heartwarming Christmas commercial. This one features Buster the Boxer, a dog who apparently has a secret yearning to do some bouncing. That yearning was unfulfilled until... Well I won't spoil it for you, here's the commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo It's another in a long … Continue reading The Christmas Commercials Are Here! →

In the worlds of football, baseball, and love, there have been some all-time great catches. In football, there was the "The Catch" by Dwight Clark in 1982, and this amazing catch by Odell Beckham, Jr. in 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxbz3DDQzHU In baseball, there's the famous catch by Willie Mays during the first game of the 1954 World … Continue reading This May Be the Greatest Catch of All-Time →

At Mitchell Elementary, a K-8 school in one of the poorest sections of Philadelphia, just 3 percent of students scored proficient on state math exams, and 11 percent passed English exams. I was aware that some schools in Philly were low-performing, but 3 percent?! Gladwyne Elementary is less than 15 miles away from Mitchell, but it … Continue reading How Can Something Like This Happen? →

The following is a classic scene from the show "Happy Days" with Fonzie and Ralph: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbMKjLe-RFA That scene has stuck with me for the past 30-plus years. Fonzie was a self-assured know-it-all, and like others of that type, had trouble admitting when he was wrong. We've just gone through a Presidential campaign where a candidate … Continue reading Why Is It So Hard for Some People to Admit They Are Wrong →

Poor Owen. He's just landed a great job at GE, but  his family and friends really don't understand, nor have an appreciation of, what he does there. Owen is a software engineer who helps to build software that runs industrial sized equipment that supports a country's infrastructure. But the people who know Owen aren't impressed, … Continue reading Owen Is My Kind of Guy →

This past week my son Pat and I successfully completed our Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training, a program sponsored by FEMA to enable individuals to be better prepared to respond to and cope with the aftermath of a disaster. Part of becoming certified was taking both a written test followed by a simulated disaster … Continue reading A Spark of Inspiration While Dreaming →

Well, I didn't really go into the mosh pit, but... My son Pat and I went to see the band Brand New tonight, along with opening acts Modern Baseball and The Front Bottoms. Pat has told me about mosh pits before, and how much he enjoys getting in the middle of one. However, I'd never … Continue reading My First Mosh Pit →