tucsonmike

Founding Fathers Young people tell me I'm out of touch for believing in the American Founding Fathers. I'm told…

Journey to a Protest  I went to a Black Lives Matter rally at the University of Arizona. OK, so did many others.…

A Heartfelt Birthday Present Many of you know the story of Paddington Bear, the bear found in Paddington…

Mr. Carson of Downton Abbey I’ve written before about Downton Abbey and my favorite character, the butler Mr.…

John Cleese and Eric Idle Come to Tucson Those who know me, know I’m a major fan of Monty Python.  In the Spring,…

An Olympic Presidential Election I didn’t think I would be writing the essay, but the words on this page prove…

In the United States, Redshirting is a term for college sports

Notice she only hears what she wants to hear

The head of the history department in my high school once showed off his knuckles

This may or may not happen in the general election for 2016

Even calling himself “The Donald,” can raise hackles

“Grandpa, you promised to take me out on Lake Champlain. Why are you running for President?”

I was watching the Grinch Who Stole Christmas and a terrible thought crossed what passes for my mind

It's a New Year, there are new Donald fights

Rwanda is known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills.”

Teutoburg Forest I had heard of Boris Johnson before I started reading his books. I read his Churchill book, and…

South African Weapon of Mass Destruction It's not the atomic or hydrogen bomb. It's something more insidious. It…

Have you thought this before?

Leading candidates' debates and demands are churlish and petulant

An inquisitive thirteen-year-old and an older woman, who isn't wiser

The Wind in the Reeds: If you don't know who Wendell Pierce is, first watch HBO's The Wire and Treme and read this…

One hundred and seven years since the last World Series victory

I suspect social media is making the following tougher

This isn't a Kumbaya moment

I would be airmailed off the Brooklyn Bridge with weights

I've been on the wrong side of a Sicilian stare before

Toward the end of the Eighteenth Century, slavery was already becoming economically unfeasible

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed invents a clock

When You Are Wealthy: Salon Magazine had an article about the United States heading the way of the end of the…

You can watch it happening on a screen

I am a Yank, but I am also an Anglophile. I enjoy things British

Social media has changed the game

You don't have to pull people out of burning buildings

Meeting and having chemistry may or not be deliberate. Ashley Madison can be nothing but deliberate.

OK, why the Mets? Don't the Cubs have a longer history of futility?

Many thought Caesar wanted to be a dictator

Cecil: A Lion with a Name Why do people care about Cecil? Lots of lions and other wildlife are killed in Africa,…

I am no paragon. I am diabetic, can stand to lose weight etc.

Time to stop being mouthy

Why is Trump running?

African-Americans and whites protesting outside the South Carolina State House

Merkel tells the misbehaving Greeks they have to clean up the mess on her terms.

I am being cynical, because it is my First Amendment right and because I can

I thought this case would be easy. It was anything but

Expect to be humiliated, if you are poor in America

General George S. Patton Murdered or Killed in Accident? This was interesting to write about, with the Seventieth…

I object in the most strenuous manner to Pandora eating me!

I would try to read, and he would come up on my lap. Trying to write? Forget about it

People would call in saying, the snowdrift was a 'Gronk' and a half high

Castle Belichick The New York Times Magazine cover story on Super Bowl Sunday was about Tom Brady. The…

My take on American Football and the issues I would like to cover

The Athens of America, the Hub

Isn’t this an oxymoron? Maybe, but look at this essay as a silly movie review.

I’ve heard of chain spreading and seed spreading, but manspreading?

The DNA of Richard III Even with my interest in English History, I never developed that much interest in Richard…

One major discussion has been about racial profiling. I can now safely tell you I have been profiled

The Chicago Cubs haven't won the World Series for more than a century

It was a bright sunny day in Mesa Verde, though Diana Sanchez, dispatcher extraordinaire was fielding some very…

"Ask your mother," Anastase said softly. "Mom will say no," he wailed. I burst out laughing

My Rwandan friend Anastase and I have started working on his biography. This is from a few years ago

The first act is what he said in the interview. A 25% tax on all Chinese goods coming here. We are defaulting on…

...or The Illinois Wisconsin Border War. What is going on with the protests in Wisconsin is serious. I could not…

The Battle Of Southie September 12th, 1974: Ray Lynch thought he’d seen enough conflict in Vietnamese Rice…

What’s a Girl Gotta Do (With apologies to country singer Joe Nichols) The administrator of Cottonwood Assisted…

Meeting With Susi Baldwin The story of Susi Baldwin begins for me in January 1976, a cold January. It is the…

Kids Will be Kids Phone calls to the Mesa Verde Police Department were normally about a cat up a tree, so two…