When I wrote this column thirteen years ago, my parents had just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  They proceeded to celebrate six more before my father died, at the age of 91.  To commemorate the 35th anniversary that my wife and I celebrated last month, here’s the original column, slightly revised, and dedicated to […]

Those who would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin George Orwell only guessed at the means, but he had the result pretty clearly identified.  In “1984,” his futuristic tale of a land where Big Brother knows everything, privacy is virtually non-existent, as the government has […]

As an academic institution, Oberlin College in Ohio (not far from Cleveland) is probably not a typical undergraduate school.  Well-regarded academically, it has a history of iconoclasm and non-conformity.  Its students are drawn to the school in part because of the freedom of thought and expression that the culture of the place seems to honor. […]

Later this summer I expect to have my last haircut.  Oh, it isn’t that I plan to die.  But I have just about gotten to the point where there isn’t going to be enough up on top to justify going to a hair stylist, at least not for anything more than the trim around the […]