With the New Year in sight, many of us think about changing ourselves for the better. Some people would like to lose weight while others may want to improve their grades in school. Improving the parent/child relationship should be on top of every parent’s to-do-list. This is not a one-sided effort. It means that children…
What can you possibly give to someone who has everything? It’s sometimes a tough issue trying to find a gift to give this person or others for Christmas. Here’s an idea. Christmastime is the season of giving. A few years ago my cousin Joni donated money in my honor to the American School for the…
History must have order and some symmetry of meaning so its students can process its content in an organized fashion. Consequently, history only records twelve princesses, a highly composite number, when in truth, there were thirteen of them. History also records those princesses going to sleep every night and waking up to find their slippers…
Since Halloween is Wednesday night, October 31, 2018, many parents are having trouble figuring out what to do with the kids? Afraid to let them go trick-or-treating for fear of the loonies out there? Here are a few ideas for parents spooked about Halloween. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with trick-or-treating. As my daughters…
In 1783 Wendy Darling was a foundling placed at the door of a London almshouse. As a child, she read The Live and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,and ever after longed to sail the seven seas and experience all the magical wonders of the world. Mortimer Black, another orphan, knew the ways of the…
A twenty-three-year-old computer hacker illegally enters the computer of a cell phone manufacturer and finds a curious file. It’s huge with five terabytes of plain ASC11 text characters with a boring name—repository1-c.txt. He gives it a look and finds something curious; many of the numbers change constantly. Then he searches the file for his name….
Revenge, Lust & Voodoo by Dina Rae tells the story of Lucien Nazaire, an old Voodoo priest from Haiti. He lives in a retirement community in Wisconsin and meets sixteen-year old Jake La Rue, who he recruits to become his apprentice to carry out his life’s work. Jake is an orphan living with his abusive Uncle…
As a reading specialist working for the Glendale Unified School District, I noticed a serious decline in reading skills of many of my students after a long hot summer break. According to researchers at the National Education Association (NEA), “Children can lose up to three months of reading progress over the summer months, and that loss…
Deafness is an invisible disability leaving its victims isolated within a hearing environment where oral language dominates the social, political, and entertainment worlds. Compared with the general population, there are few people touched by deafness, so the majority has no idea of its emotional impact and social effect on its victims. Myron Uhlberg knows better….
The Westside Jewish Community Center on Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles hosted its 12th annual basketball exhibition game Saturday evening March 3, 2018 between the Special Macabees and the Santa Monica West Side Special Olympics All-Stars. It was a rainy evening, but the excitement inside the JCCA was palpable. Athletes on both teams ranged in…