Author: Jim Tatum

It’s kind of interesting the way we perceive our animals, especially pets, these days. I am not making fun of anyone – My Beloved and I absolutely spoil our dogs shamelessly. But this is a little odd, because I don’t think either of us was raised that way.

  You think you’re on top of your game. Then out of the blue comes that stray freight train, that looming bomb, that guided missile that annihilates all those illusions. Okay, okay, so maybe I’m being dramatic, but hey, a rude awakening can be a right traumatic experience.

So the other day I’m making coffee when I hear something weird. It’s this other-worldly voice, not really moaning, but not really articulating anything, either. As I had enjoyed the better part of a large bottle of Malbec the night before, I dimly wondered if I was having some sort of mild DTs. In a flash, a better notion hit me, along the lines of, “Why don’t you look out the window and see what it is making that noise, moron.”

I’m reading a terrific book, Craig Nelson’s “Rocket Men,” which is the story of the race to the moon. The irony that strikes me is, I’m really enjoying turning pages in a great big hard-backed 400 something page tome, not squinting at it on a computer screen, Kindle, or smartphone, none of which we could so effortlessly take for granted if it had not been for the Apollo program.

Remember that early 80s movie “Top Secret?” It was a sleeper, brought to us by the zany folks who brought us such masterpieces as “Airplane!” and “Kentucky Fried Movie.” Here was a classic line: He: “I’m not the first guy who fell in love with a woman that he met at a restaurant who turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist only to lose her to her childhood lover who she last saw on a deserted island who then turned out fifteen years later to be the leader of the French underground.” She: “I know. It all sounds like some bad movie…”

Ah, late spring/early summer. The nights are still cool, the days heat up, the mosquitoes start to swarm and the flies provide untold hours of amusement for my dog. It’s time once again for that most cherished rite of warm weather: Grilling out. It’s not just that the weather is nice and cooking out is a treat. It’s not just that the stars are bright and the tea olives exhale a perfume more intoxicating than the finest of wines. No, the only words I can possibly use to describe it are the following: MMMMM….FIRE GOOD!

So I’m sort of sitting back and scratching my head about all the hoopla over Arizona’s newly...

Is it just me or are scam artists getting a lot more creative these days? Every day I run across yet another scheme to separate many desperate fools from their money. At first it’s amusing, then it’s sad, then it’s scary. You have to be somewhat amused at the lengths some people will go in their Quixotic quests to gain something for nothing. You have to be saddened that some people are so desperate, vulnerable, or just plain out stupid as to think these things are going to come out in their favor. And you have to be a little frightened that, not only do people exist that have some ingenuity but no moral compass whatsoever – and even more frightened that so many people seem to exist who are in fact stupid, desperate, greedy and/or vulnerable.

Hi, there. I just want you all to know that I love you, each and every one of you. You are all...