Tag Archives: Athens

In bleak midwinter, pitchers, catchers, and the lost sandlot, warm the soul

In the weeks-long news blitz about this winter’s bone-chilling, record-setting cold and snow, to include the tsunami-like effect of winter storms Maya and Nadia it has not escaped me that Major League Baseball spring training camps are opening this week. While channel surfing, I noticed a countdown clock almost wound down behind a sportscaster. Then he spoke the magic […]

Memorial Day: The loneliness of the funeral officer

In 430 B.C., after the first year of the Peloponnesian War – arguably history’s most devastating civil conflict, between Athens and Sparta – the Athenians gathered to bury their dead and hear a eulogy by the general and statesman Pericles. In what has been described as the paradigm for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, he uttered these […]

Teachers matter: How Mr. Miskell changed the world

One afternoon almost 40 years ago, my ninth grade geometry teacher, Mr. Miskell, stood in front of a chalkboard, paused, and then proceeded to change the world – making it a better place for me, forever. This time of year, around Labor Day, with local schools gearing up for fall, my thoughts always turn to him, […]

On Father’s Day, let’s not forget granddads who mattered

My paternal grandfather George was one tough hombre. Armed with just a grade school education back in the old country, he lived his 92 years there with the energy of a teenager. Known to us by the affectionate Greek moniker of “Pappou,” he possessed drive and ambition that kept his eyes on the horizon, forever dreaming. A former editor of […]