Now that I am alone, I do not can any more. I used to do a lot of canning. Canning was not something that I was accustomed to doing. I do remember helping a friend’s mother who canned tomatoes. She was an Italian lady who canned a lot of tomatoes for sauce and other tomato dishes. I ...

She is gone. It is as though the last thread holding the world together, dating back to my childhood, has disappeared. Queen Elizabeth was mourned, celebrated, and lovingly buried as I wrote this – glued all morning to PBS’ full coverage. I stumbled into the den at 5:20 a.m. and turned ...

The men and women who put their lives on the line shouldn’t have them placed on hold by a Veterans Administration that kept hundreds in isolation long after the rest of our state emerged from COVID lockdown. Yet that’s exactly what happened at the Veterans Administration Medical Center ...

More than 40 years is a long time to have been driving on rural roads in northwestern Pennsylvania without having had an accident involving a deer. There had been many close calls but no accident. But my luck ran out just recently, and I would say in retrospect that what occurred does not ...

The other day some friends and I went out to lunch. As we ate, we talked about some favorite snacks. It was unanimous — the favorite snack was toast. Some liked it with jelly. Some liked it with cinnamon and sugar. Some liked it plain. I guess the reason toast came up was because I ...

In July, it was Wimbledon. Now, the U.S. Open, live from New York City. It’s as if the gods of televised tennis are purposely trying to destroy my sleep. The men’s match Friday night began at 10:45 p.m. As the clock slid past 1:30 a.m., I finally had to hit the remote’s “record” ...