Tuesday, January 3, 2012 by admin
The year 1998 was the beginning of a remarkable transformation for my family. My father, Jim Dineen, the always healthy, weightlifting, never-missed-a-day-of-work kind of dad, discovered he had kidney disease. He was 52, and had no symptoms. We don't really know how he got it -- he even guessed that exposure to Agent Orange when he was in Vietnam could have been a factor -- and the road to recovery has been long...
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by admin
That Christmas Eve, the streets of Boston were clogged with tourists and locals bundled in wool and flannel. Shoppers, hawkers, and gawkers whirled and swirled around me. "Frosty the Snowman," "Let It Snow!" and "Jingle Bells" played in stores; on the sidewalks, the street musicians did their best...
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by admin
I must have been about nine years old, too dignified to sit on Santa's lap at the Mason's department store in Anniston, Alabama, but still young enough to ask — please, please, please — for a G...
Monday, December 26, 2011 by admin
That Christmas Eve, the streets of Boston were clogged with tourists and locals bundled in wool and flannel. Shoppers, hawkers, and gawkers whirled and swirled around me. "Frosty the Snowman," "Let It Snow!" and "Jingle Bells" played in stores; on the sidewalks, the street musicians did their best...
Thursday, December 22, 2011 by admin
I must have been about nine years old, too dignified to sit on Santa's lap at the Mason's department store in Anniston, Alabama, but still young enough to ask — please, please, please — for a G.I. Joe. "You're too old to play with dolls," my brother Sam hissed at me...
Thursday, December 22, 2011 by admin
Get the most from your sunglasses by sidestepping these pitfalls. Skipping sunglasses in the winter. Snow reflects 80 percent of sunlight — three times more than water and five times more than beach sand. Relying only on contact lenses...
Thursday, December 22, 2011 by admin
My five-year-old daughter knew exactly what she wanted for Christmas of 1977, and told me so. Yes, she still would like the pink-and-green plastic umbrella with a clear top she'd been talking about...