The Traditional Sex Talk: Not Strictly for Kids

When it first appeared on TV in 1996, Everybody Loves Raymond, the family comedy sitcom which ran until 2005 and which is now in rerun syndication on cable, never really interested me.  I thought it kind of hokey.  Not serious enough.
 
However, at some point it began to grow on me and now, like the fine old wine that it is, Priscille and I are able to enjoy some of its reruns and to enjoy the skillful writing and acting behind this show.
 
A couple of nights ago, we were watching one of the episodes featuring a three-way interplay between Raymond (the dad), Debra (the mom), and Ally (the oldest child). 
 
There are only a few things that Ray thinks are important in his life:  Writing his sports column for Newsday, going out with the boys, playing golf, and keeping the peace between his wife Debra and his mother Marie.  He is successful with his writing, but usually bungles up everything else in his efforts to please everyone and, therefore, no one.

Board of Education Authorizes Settlement of Tenure Charges

Mr. Larry Markiewicz, shown here following
 a performance of the Rariitan Valley Symphonic
 Band,on April 10, 2011,  at the Bridgewater-
Raritan High School.

During the second open session of a special board meeting on the evening of September 17^th, Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education President Mr. Patrick Breslin was authorized to enter into an agreement with suspended High School music teacher Mr. Larry Markiewicz.

In June of this year, formal tenure charges were brought against Mr. Markiewicz by the now-retired Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Michael Schilder, for “conduct unbecoming of a teaching staff member.”  The Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education ratified those charges.

At the recent September 17^th special meeting, after the closed session was over, members of the BR-BOE reconvened in open session to hear board member Lynne Hurley read the following resolution:

Board of Education to Hold Special Meeting Tonight

This evening at 7:30 p.m., the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting beginning with a closed-door executive session at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville. 

The agenda is brief, stating that "the topic for discussion is:  settlement of litigation involving L.M. with Board Counsel." 

Although the precise meaning of the subject matter  "L.M." is not specified in the agenda, its exact nature will be evident to those who have followed board matters concerning events swirling around prominent staff members during the last year

The Silence of the North

Priscille and I have been vacationing in what people hereabouts call “up north,” in the environs of Meredith, Center Harbor, and Moultonborough, New Hampshire. 

These communities are only a few of the many small, yet numerous towns huddled in nature’s nooks and crannies about thirty miles south of the White Mountain National Forest. 

They are hard-working, resort towns that hug the craggy, irregular, granite encrusted shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, a 70-plus square mile remnant of the last glacial period, a body of water that one of Center Harbor’s eighteenth century luminaries – in typically understated Yankee fashion – referred to as “the big pond.”

Chasing Evil . . .

. . . around the globe is not America’s job.

This Administration’s ballooning involvement in prewar preparations against Syria was about to become a tipping point which – if it already hasn’t been reached – could have embroiled the U.S. in another international conflict lasting well beyond the second term of President Barack Obama, the man who has become irrevocably tied to the phrase “crossing the red line.”

But who is it, exactly, that was about to cross that red line into the abyss of unintended consequences?

Warfare is a hazardous undertaking.  There are times which require it.  And there are times when it is wiser to seek a more practical solution.