Opinion

My late mother would have been tickled by a front-page Wall Street Journal story that appeared on her 99th birthday. Mom loved meeting strangers and pumping them for information (“Why does someone your size carry such a tiny can of pepper spray — and where is the nearest eyewash station”), so she was always tormented by the new normal of people walking around with their nose buried in their “little machine” (smartphone).

Recently, we reminisced about Dippity Do, Hai Karate, Mr. Bubble and other products from our youth. That opened the floodgates. Many of you shared memories of products we rarely see today. Let’s take another trip down the aisles of A&P, Piggly Wiggly and Shop-Rite stores we visited every Friday night. As you know, pennies are being phased out of circulation. Let’s face it, most of us haven’t bent down to pick up a penny in years, so few tears are being shed.

A friend of mine recently lost his iPhone. I’ll call him Jack, since that’s his name. (He doesn’t read my column, so we’re safe here.)

Honestly, I’m glad when schools delve into poetry or offer students some semblance of art and music appreciation classes, but I worry about society’s overreliance on critics/ reviewers/public scolds.

Being a lifelong music fan and an occasional radio host, I’ve often baffled my family with my song selections.

I have been busier than a one-armed paper hanger or, as my Aunt Zada used to say, “a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.” My pet-sitting business has been so slammed that I have had to ask three other pet sitters to help me out to keep my clients happy. I have been trying to get my flower gardens in and spring clean.

Dolly Parton has been in the news a lot lately, and she appears to have overcome some health concerns. This is a milestone year for Dolly, marking her 80th birthday, the 60th anniversary of her marriage to the late Carl Dean, the 40th anniversary of Dollywood and the 30th anniversary of her Imagination Library. There is no better time to send a love letter to “our Dolly.” Born January 19, 1946, in Sevierville, Tennessee, Dolly Rebecca Parton has risen from humble beginnings in the Great Smoky Mountains to become one of the most successful people in the entertainment world.

Even people who don’t celebrate Passover have been exposed to lessons from the Exodus (if only through Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments,”) but some of us retain water better than we retain the significance of the parting of the Red Sea.

Let’s explore the origin of some common sayings. After writing several columns about sayings like, “Not my cup of tea,” and, “The straw that broke the camel’s back,” many of you suggested a few others. How many times have you threatened to read someone “The Riot Act?” What is that act, and why is there a riot involved? I’m pretty sure I “read the Riot Act” to my sons when they were teenagers, and I’m equally certain they rolled their eyes when I did.