Holidays

A Day of Remembrance

Memorial Day is not a holiday in the usual celebratory sense of the word.  Rather, it is a commemoration of selfless sacrifice by many patriots and comrades-in-arms, who remain “forever young” in the memory of those of us who had the privilege of serving alongside of... Read More

Christmas Magic

Of all the Christmas movies the classic 1983 film, “A Christmas Story,” starring Peter Billingsly, Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon remains my favorite.   A period piece set in the late 1940s; the film is a caricature of Christmas for millions. The movie captures... Read More

A (Italian) Christmas Story

For Italian mothers, Christmas is the social event of the season—it’s their raison d’être. They clean.  They cook.  They bake.  They orchestrate the day.  In essence, Christmas is what Italian women live for.  So it was that during junior year college Christmas-break... Read More

Legends, Myths and Traditions

The other night I watched one of my favorite Christmas movies —Miracle on 34th Street, starring Edmund Gwenn (who won an Academy Award for his role as Santa Claus), Maureen O’Hara, and a very young and precocious Natalie Wood. With all the hubbub on FOX News, and in... Read More

“Pass the Gravy Please.”

Well, it’s Thanksgiving Day and another holiday season is upon us.  Today our festivities will center on family, friends, a turkey dinner and football (if we haven’t gone skiing.) As I sat down to type this commentary I couldn’t help thinking about the milieu that... Read More

Not for Women Only!

Each year onn February 14th we “celebrate” the day of St. Valentine by exchanging gifts with our loved ones—or at least that’s what the marketing people in the flower and candy industries would have us believe. In actuality, it’s a day when the price of flowers are... Read More