The ultimate responsibility for educating children has always fallen to their parents, and this is true even in a country in which the average per pupil cost of a public education approaches $10,000.  Educators, burdened by institutional or school district policies and government regulations, often do not have the time to ensure that their entire [...]

I once winged off to new locales and cruised the open seas with utter abandon.  With a tightening economy and a world besieged by terrorists, I no longer do that.  Cheaper airfares equate to inconveniences, and as I no longer feel safe on a cruise ship, I now stick closer to home when vacationing.  But, [...]

Admit it, you’re a shopaholic!  So, as they say, “if you have the name, why not play the game.”  And, for those of you who may have been sleeping or in a coma for the last couple of decades, the Internet is the destination of choice for the savvy shopaholic.  While retail stores offer you [...]

Do you remember the fable, “The Princess and the Pea”?  To refresh your memory, our heroine spent an uncomfortable night tossing and turning because, to make a long story short, she didn’t have the proper accommodations.  Whenever I venture into previously unexplored vacation territory, I’m always afraid that I’m going to wind up like that [...]

To the best of my knowledge, my grandfather Rocco Petruzzelli was born in Italy in 1865.  In 1896, he left his homeland and the village of Castelluccio Valmaggiore near Foggia / Apulia, Italy and set out for America, leaving his son and my father Donato – born a matter of months earlier on October 31, [...]

I have gotten quite accustomed to scams perpetrated via email.  For a number of years now, I have received notifications almost daily that I have won any number of lotteries (the Microsoft Lottery being the most frequent).  Additionally, I have been inundated by barristers (that’s lawyers to those of you unfamiliar with the nomenclature for [...]

I have waded, on two separate trips, into the warm, pale turquoise waters of Aruba. I’ve left my footprints in the sand of pristine beaches in the Aegean Sea, including the one on Mykonos that the tour guides neglected to mention was a topless beach!   Nowadays, I prefer to stay closer to home when I [...]

In a testament to wasteful government spending, the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools in Los Angeles will open its doors to 4,200 students in grades K-12 next month.  Construction of the mammoth facilities cost taxpayers in California a whopping $576 million.  What those who spend the money of others do not realize is that educating [...]

No doubt you have seen one of those long-running TV commercials touting the benefits of attorneys skilled in litigating cases involving Mesothelioma.  If you’ve wondered what mesothelioma is, you number among the lucky, healthy ones.  A form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure, this disease strikes approximately 2,000 individuals in the United States each year.  [...]

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as having said, “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.”  If you think Ben’s was a cynical view of human nature, you may wish to examine your own track record.  How many times have you broken a confidence, and to what degree? 

I’ll come clean and admit that, [...]