In a Pickle William Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, contains one of the first uses of the expression “in a pickle.” The Tempest is a story of a shipwreck (think Gilligan’s Island) with some magic and…

Say What? Imagine you just moved to Surprise City, AZ (yes, it’s a real place) and are spending Friday evening searching the internet for a primary care physician (PCP). Up pops the Surprise City Medical’s (SCM) website…

What’s the best thing about July? For many Americans, it’s the Fourth of July, the federal holiday celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It’s a time to spend with family (that includes pets, too) and…

The legend of the Trojan horse is a great story of how an ingenious bit of trickery led to the end of the 10 year war between the Greeks and Trojans  sometime around 1200 B.C. The…

Marking Milestones In the days of the Roman Empire, roads were marked by milestone markers set 1,000 paces apart. Made of stone or marble, the markers not only provided the distance to Rome or the…

You may have heard the saying “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” It’s an example of a way people tried to predict the weather long before the…

On the Safe Side “Ring Around the Rosie” is a well-known nursery rhyme and singing game in the U.S. and around the world. The rhyme first appeared in print in Kate Greenaway’s 1881 “Old Nursery…

Don’t Say It, Don’t Post It The lead-up to the long Memorial Day weekend started with the usual barrage of ads touting discounts on clothes, electronics and of course, mattresses. Menus for Memorial Day backyard…

How Are You? What’s your response to the question “how are you”?  Do you reply “fantastic”, “I am well, thank you for asking”, “great” or something in a similar vein? But is your response really…

Lost Mothers In 1964, the Beatles song, Can’t Buy Me Love was #27 on Billboard pop chart upon release. The song then jumped directly to #1 the following week, breaking the record for the biggest…

Only the Lonely Let’s start with a quiz! What are the answers to these three questions? 1. What is associated with a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke?…

Pick a Word Pick a word – chubby, pudgy, stout, plump, or round. When used to describe a person’s body, these words reflect a negative view of an individual who is not thin/skinny. Americans have…

Four Roses I remember my parents frequently saying that our next-door neighbor, Mr. T, a friendly and kind man in his early 70s, was “talking to the four roses.” I was only 8 or 9…

I Did It My Way Let’s face it, no one likes being told what to do. If you have ever heard the song My Way, first recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1969, you may remember…

Refrigerator Mothers April is Autism Acceptance month, sometimes referred to as Autism Awareness month. While current research supports that genetic and environmental factors are some causes of autism, the exact cause of autism remains unknown. But…