The sun and sky were provocative that day. Clear and 68 degrees – so welcome after the recent blitz of snowstorms. Warm and enticing. The weather, after all that hostility, felt like something comfortable you could slip into, like a favorite shirt. more

Near the end of the 1990s, welfare reform booted roughly four million women off relief and into the job market. The assumption in the buildup to this action was that a job was the ticket out of poverty and that the only thing holding back welfare recipients was their reluctance to get out and get one. more

In the way that people describe wartime invasions as beginning with the distant thunder of explosions moving closer, so last year the month of March swerved like a dark cloud into view and grew larger in the sideview mirror until it overtook us. more

Way back in the distant past, the year 2020 shall we say, around August, certainly by December, the CDC began to announce its suggested protocols for administering the COVID-19 vaccine. more

The Philadelphia chapter of the American Association of Architects gave this year’s top Thomas Walter award to a West Oak Lane resident, Tiffany Millner, who mentors high school students. more

Every site described in Mark O'Connell's "Personal Journey" can be seen on YouTube. So, why write a book? What does a book offer that an assemblage of pixels does not? more

Is there some way in which you're hoping to live a more creative life this year? Are you hoping to express yourself? Begin wood sculpting, or quilting, or writing a novel or memoir? Writing songs? more

In looking back over my reading list for this year I was surprised to see that the great majority of books I read were on my Kindle. more

Thanksgiving may be over but it's never too late to be grateful. In this time between White House administrations, nobody's looking if you want to get some international business done. You can't … more

Spending more time outside during this pandemic gives us the opportunity to explore new places and learn more about our neighborhood. Ever popular are the paths on either side of the Cresheim … more

I was at work one day in 2001 when my wife phoned and said I should come home. An airplane had crashed into the World Trade Tower in New York. Something was going on. It didn't seem like an accident. … more