community
May 25, 2008
- Now in Rome the Jasmine is in full bloom, poking into every crevice, trying to enter the windows. The seagull chicks on the terrace below are trying out their wings, and as always Alfredo, on Via Giulia, the owner of the Bar Giulia, emerges smiling from the densely packed crowd of loudly talking, gesticulating clients who fill his bar. He greets us as always with a song and a ...
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April 21, 2008
- This month, I’ve been spending time at The Grotto, the famed San Francisco writers' community which is home to such West Coast literary luminaries as Po Bronson, David Ewing Duncan, ZZ Packer, Jason Roberts, Julia Scheeres, Ethan Watters, and many others. One of my favorite parts of making the trek to the Grotto’s offices on 2nd and Bryant Streets is lunchtime, when Grotto dwellers emerge ...
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April 8, 2008
- I am collecting stories of satisfying acts of service for VOLUME TWO of THE SOCIAL CAUSE DIET and all are welcome to submit. Please visit http://www.socialcausediet.com for more information. The introduction for VOLUME ONE follows.
Introduction to The Social Cause Diet
Volunteering and health appear to be tied together. Evidence suggests that a regimen of helping others may be as ...
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April 4, 2008
- Although most people don’t consider themselves isolated or friendless, 1/4 of Americans say they don’t have even a single close friend (according to a study reported in USA Today, June 23, 2006). This is a change from just 20 years ago when only 10% reported having no close friendships. Maybe our expectations have changed. Maybe we don’t expect friends to take the time to listen or to have ...
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March 23, 2008
- Fellow miscreants, take heart: the internet is the perfect haven for our kind.The sheer diversity of souls who have access to a portal on the world is phenomenal. And a small but influential proportion of them are going to be deviants, weirdos, renegades.miscreant (mis-kri-uhnt) Origin: Old French: "disbelieving" (Oxford Dictionary of Current English)My kind of people. We don't ...
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March 21, 2008
- Okay, this technology stuff is starting to grow on me.I admit it, I'm quite the Luddite, contemptuous of the new and improved when the old and reliable seems to work just fine. I've said it before, I'm a son of the Space Age, this computer stuff often leaves me feeling like a caveman watching from the shadows as his neighbor makes fire.It was Sherron, my wife, who insisted it was time to make ...
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March 8, 2008
- When he was growing up, my son, Gabe, always requested the same dinner on his birthday: lasagna and mashed potatoes. These days we skip the mashed potatoes, but still honor the tradition.Forget the gifts; don't worry about the cake. The only thing Gabe really wants for his birthday is a meal worth remembering. An Italian meal.And since he lives in Rhode Island, we have a lot of choices. If ...
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January 29, 2008
- I have been involved with Red Room since March of last year, lining up authors for web pages, and I have never been so proud of this organization as I am today. What an outpouring of wonderful support for Patry Francis! I'm also happy to have played a small part in this effort: my friend Victoria Zackheim, also a Red Room author, told me about this effort weeks ago, and I brought the idea to the ...
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January 29, 2008
- This morning I sent out a mailing to the 4 or 500 people who read my political rants and forwards, only this morning, I urged them to buy Patry's novel as a way of helping themselves and of helping her. I felt particularly good doing this, because I've been cranky of late about how a 'virtual' community is not really a community at all, and how much of the blather about the Internet is really ...
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