Most of us, at one time or another, have commented, “If only I had a little more time,” As children we may have replied “be there in a minute” when called to a meal from play or while in the midst of working on a school assignment.

The Jay Leno pieces that display in full color our nation’s ignorance stopped being funny a long while ago. They’re not even cringe worthy anymore, just pathetic. Just when you find yourself hoping that all those “Jaywalkers” are celebrity-obsessed put-ons hamming it up for the camera comes a report like the one issued last week from Common Core. The information in “Still At Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now” won’t surprise anyone who’s been up watching television past the local news. However, it might, should, make them cry. For example, 10 percent of those surveyed thought Adolf Hitler was a munitions manufacturer. Nearly 25 percent, the same number that thought Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue sometime after1750, couldn’t identify Hitler.

I am so glad that the strike with the Writers Guild of America is over.  Never before have I seen television suffer as it has during the past few months.  Being an aspiring writer myself, I am very sympathetic to the writers involved with the strike.  Every time I watch a sitcom on television and a clever line causes me to laugh out loud, I always think of the writer and wonder how they came up with that particular witty remark.  After all, aren’t the writers the main factor that determines whether or not a show is good?  Shouldn’t they have the right to demand more credit for their hard work?

Much of my professional career has been devoted to obtaining and sharing information about consumer issues. So it was predictable that many “Senior Moments” would deal with similar topics.

Meredith Vieira is the bigger man.

You may remember an old cast-iron dinner bell standing watch over your childhood backyard. When the noontime meal was ready to be served by the ladies of the house, it would be rung to call the work hands in from the fields for dinner.  Dinner was the main meal of the day and served at noon whereas the evening meal was known as supper and often consisted of leftovers from the noon meal. City folks were more likely to refer to the evening meal as their dinner than their country cousins.

As is customarily the case during the harshness of the cold winter months, as of lately, I have been battling more than my share of sinus infections and colds.  Whenever I am sick, I cannot help but think of my late great-great-aunt Hazel.  Hazel fretted incessantly every time anyone in the family was the slightest bit under the weather.  If you sneezed once, she would fill you full of Benadryl.  If your stomach was the slightest bit upset, she would force you to take Pepto Bismol, as my mother will tell you.  She didn’t exclude herself from the equation either.

Hello from Capitol Hill in Richmond!

This week was crossover, which always comes at the half-way point of General Assembly Session.  Crossover, which this year fell on Tuesday, February 12, is the day in which all House bills must be communicated to the Senate and all Senate bills to the House.  This meant a lot of work on the House floor.  The Session convened on Monday at ten a.m., and we did not finish debate and floor votes until just before eight p.m.

Environmentally friendly seniors

Vehicle shows of a different breed