On a Positive Note

Somewhere along the line, where the approach to raising children changed from how their folks did it to how they do it today, some modern parents struck upon the idea that nothing can be more important than their children having high self-esteem.

Feeling good about yourself was imperative, they reasoned. Their children could only excel if they looked at themselves as talented and gifted individuals destined to do great things in their lives. They were special, and it was important they and everyone else, even those who didn’t care a lick, knew that.

Same Game, You Just Add Gravity

 

Orson McFeeney was a man in search of the million-dollar idea.

Sure, he understood the value of hard work and stuff like that, but what he really wanted was to come up with an idea that would make him more money than he ever dreamed off, all while sitting back and doing pretty much nothing while the cash rolled in.

Sort of like a U.S. Congressman.

Going to the Dogs

Sarah Hitchcock had heard all she wanted to hear about her biological clock.

Sarah was 30, unmarried but willing, and had been through enough failed relationships to wonder if she would ever find a husband.

That was frustrating enough, but whenever a well-intentioned friend would offer the observation that “your biological clock is ticking” Sarah became mad enough to scream or take a punch at the commenter.

Or even to just grab a real clock and beat the person over the head with it.

Looking for the Write Stuff

Ever since she was in junior high school, Carol Heckathorn had aspired to be a famous author.

In the four decades since she had churned out dozens of books and submitted letters to hundreds of agents and publishers with the hope of getting her words in print. With every book came a steady stream of rejection letters.

The Man With Two Forks

In the sometimes minimalist world of men who live alone, Clark Memminger probably isn’t too much out of the ordinary in a lot of ways.

Clark is a confirmed bachelor, a status that he and every woman he has ever met seem determined to perpetuate.

Not that he’s complaining. At 57 he has pretty much come to grips with the fact that he’s never going to get married. There are worse fates he reasoned, like having a giant wart growing on the end of your nose or not having cable TV.

The Woman Who Loved Richard X. Slattery

Richard X. Slattery

For many people the road of life includes spots where their dreams come up against the brick wall of reality.

 

Some simply recalculate their route and go on. Others back up and keep ramming into that wall over and over again. Every once in a while someone will break through. But sadly the usual ending is the wall comes crumbling down, burying their hopes along with them.

Such was the spirit-breaking plight of Twila Morgenstern, known along Patterson Avenue simply as The Woman Who Loved Richard X. Slattery.

Twitter: Where Cowards Go to Grow a Pair

Friends liked to say Andy Harrison was so passive he ought to be a Quaker.

Andy, who worked for a local advertising firm, avoided confrontation like some men avoid marriage, or the dentist, or shopping with their wives on Sunday afternoons during the pro football season.

That isn’t to say he was happy about everything. As a matter of fact, his closest friends knew he had a complaint about most things. He would just mutter about this or that and no one would pay attention.