Life was just a tire swing

 

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

It was sometime around 1980 that I started fretting about the too-skinny branches on lodgepole pines. Such branches could never support a rope that in turn would support a well-worn Goodyear tire – which in turn would support a little boy. Or maybe two little boys.

My fretting continued through at least half that decade, a time when my two sons grew into and then out of the perfect size to make good use of a Goodyear on a rope. And somewhere in the recesses of my 1960s’ counterculture/knee-jerk liberal bellbottomed one-toke-over-the-line hippie mind, which in the ‘80s worsened to a ski resort snobbish-elite/liberal newspaper editor/publisher’s mind, there was guilt.

Lions and tigers and …marauding raccoons?

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

Some people are afraid of spiders, and for some the creepiest critter on Earth is the slithering snake. For me, it’s always been flying monkeys.

You know the ones. They were introduced in the 1939 first-ever color movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” when the Wicked Witch of the West said the word, and a gajillion flying monkeys filled the sky. To this very day I either slam my grandmotherly peepers shut or make some excuse to leave the room. You should know I’m also freaked out by Dorothy chanting about lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

In your Facebook

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

Sorry this is kinda late, Mr. Editor. But Facebook ate my computer.

Seriously.

Last week I wrote about “coincidences,” which for the most part are wondrous little God-humor events in my life. This week the simultaneous occurrences didn’t seem quite so divine – although right now I am able to laugh again.

Google “giggle” and you have me.

Harry’s Choice

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

In his 1979 novel Sophie’s Choice, author William Styron left his readers breathless from the bleak portrayals he penned of the human condition.

Stingo’s poverty, Nathan’s spiraling mental illness and, of course, Sophie herself and the eventual confession she shared with Stingo about her choice during World War II. Sorry if you’ve not read this powerful book, but it’s Sophie’s choice I draw on this week.

You are what you eat

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

Just out of curiosity I did a search today to find out how much of the food we eat here in the United States is imported. Lest you think I pulled these stats off the blogosphere, be assured my primary source of information on this matter is the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

From Russia. With love?

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

Politics is a hot topic at best. At worst it’s thermo-nuclear. For conversation’s sake, let’s go for the worst, shall we?

Last week I stumbled upon two stories that caused the hair on my neck to stand up. First was an item reported initially on April 24 at eutimes.net/2012/04/us-calls-for-russian-airborne-troops-to-take-and-hold-denver-airport and then picked up by U.S. media, making the web site rounds during the week of April 30.