May 13, 2011 – 7:28 am
A couple of days ago there was an article in the New York Times about the many new and different nicknames for grandparents. Looking to stay and act younger, my generation is no longer just Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Papa.
In my first Cheesie Mack book, almost-11-year-old Cheesie talks about the unusual nicknames for his mother’s parents:
“I have never met anyone who has a Gumpy or a Meemo. I am collecting grandparent nicknames on my website. You can put yours in if you want.”
Lots of kids have sent in their family’s nicknames, and the list is very diverse. For a first-hand, child-driven take on this “I’m-not-old-enough-to-be-called-Granny” trend among the older generation, visit Cheesie’s grandparent nickname webpage.
May 1, 2011 – 11:43 pm
Osama Bin Laden is dead, but this is not a time for exultation.
Crowds of mostly young people outside the White House are celebrating. Surely there is justification for bringing justice down upon terrorists. His death will undoubtedly change the nature of the world conflict for which 9/11 remains the signature event. But the hooting and chanting is unsettling and unthinking. It is as if those celebrants had just watched a team win a sporting event.
Celebrating at V-J Day marked the end of World War II. Bin Laden’s death is not an end. It is a sober reminder that many have died, and many more will die.
April 12, 2011 – 5:57 pm
Time and situation award only a few in each generation with an opportunity to take a place in history. How much smaller is the number who are twice-touched by fate. Today’s post is about one such man. It starts with the differences between North and South and ends with the thin line that separates fair and foul.
The Civil War was a mold for heroes and villains. Out of its tragedies and triumphs Read More »
April 2, 2011 – 11:50 am
This year’s March Madness has brought us a Final Four with no #1 or #2 seeds, unique in NCAA tournament history. But the absence of high-seed teams has not dulled enthusiasm for the last three games. In fact, some sports pundits are trumpeting the “Cinderella” factor: can a #11 seed, Virginia Commonwealth University, pull off the all-time, unexpected upset?
But no matter who matter who wins the game, the bookies win their money. The bookie’s odds always include a built-in percentage for the house. In 2009 I calculated the Las Vegas Final Four edge at 9.8%; in 2010, the edge was larger (14.3%). This year the edge, if you can actually get these published odds, is unbelievably small…only 2.2%!
Read More »
March 22, 2011 – 4:58 pm
Several years ago I had an idea for a book about an active, inquisitive ten-year-old boy. His name was Ronald Mack, but his friends all called him Cheesie. I envisioned him as full of life, talkative, smart, and funny…exactly the kind of youngster who’d get into complicated kid situations that would require clever kid thinking to get out of.
I gave him a best friend, Georgie, and loving family…with one exception: an older sister who would be much happier if he’d never been born.
I’m a Californian, and it would have been easy to build his world on the west coast. But as I began to write the first book in what will become a Random House series, Cheesie demanded to live in Massachusetts…Gloucester in particular.
Today that book, Cheesie Mack Is Not a Genius or Anything, appeared on bookshelves across the country.
Cheesie is my little boy, and I held him in my arms this afternoon.
February 25, 2011 – 5:42 pm
![SNAP-SPELLING-F[1]](http://stevecotler.com/tales/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SNAP-SPELLING-F1-300x89.jpg)
Little Johnny can read well long before he can spell well. Should you be worried? Should you send him to a tutor?
Problem-solving technique can be deductive/analytical or inductive/synthetic. Stated another way, an approach can be convergent or divergent.
For every youngster striving for literacy, learning to read and spell requires both convergent and divergent Read More »
February 17, 2011 – 3:16 pm
I learned contract bridge at 13 and played through grad school. Then came almost 40 years without a bid. But for the last year or so, I’ve been teaching bridge to a group of women. It has been a particularly satisfying endeavor for two reasons: 1) they are members of AAUW—American Association of University Women—and quite intelligent; and 2) the process enables me to recapture what I once knew and long since sequestered in remote memory recesses.
My weekly practice is to prepare a few hands Read More »
January 17, 2011 – 11:53 am
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I've been to the mountaintop" speech, Memphis, April 3, 1968
Just a few days ago,
Jeh C. Johnson,
general counsel for the Department of Defense, gave a speech at the Pentagon in recognition of Martin Luther King Day. Toward the end of his talk, Johnson mused about what the non-violent preacher, a man who railed ceaselessly against the Vietnam War, would feel about our ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were he alive today.
It is hard to imagine a more wrong-headed analysis of Rev. King’s philosophy of non-violence. After correctly noting King’s unwavering stand against the Vietnam War, Johnson loses his way. Quoting from the “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech given the day before King was assassinated, Johnson mistakenly likens King’s reference to the compassionate aid of the Good Samaritan to the Shock and Awe of a mighty armed force. He equates giving aid to waging war.
Read More »
January 15, 2011 – 7:02 pm
I have posted about this long out-of-print album here, here, here, and here.
Finally, a commenter has noted that the entire album is available for listening and downloading online.
Enjoy.
![SNAP-SPELLING-F[1]](http://stevecotler.com/tales/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/SNAP-SPELLING-F1.jpg)
