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For (old-school) hipness, gift macaroni macrame

Here’s what I’m getting you for Christmas: one sturdy piece of cardboard; one bottle of Elmer’s glue; one can of gold spray paint; and one box of elbow macaroni. Merry Christmas! It’s a rooster. Or a pig. Or a cow. Or whatever macaroni critter or creation your little crafter’s heart ...

A tip from Mom: For $5, you can wear them

Editor’s note: A little bug bothered Burt this week, so while he’s home taking a nap, we present this Cole Clasic originally published May 20, 1997. Use it as Christmas shopping advice. I believe the single, greatest gift my mother instilled in me was her philosophy for life, which can ...

Tell me why — pondering life’s imponderables

In fits of forced boredom, I used to ponder that age-old question of if a tree fell in the forest, and there was no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Or if a man speaks in a forest and there’s no woman there to hear him, is he still wrong? Coughs and sniffles have kept me at ...

Follow the trail of dirty socks and shirts home

My wife left me. But only for two weeks. “Do you miss me?” she asked in one of our nightly phone calls. “Absolutely,” I said, while muting the TV. I didn’t want her to overhear that I was watching wrestling, which apparently is “stupid” and “ridiculous” and “without ...

Bedbugs, early birds and worms worry the sleep out of our noggins

I came across an article the other day titled, “Energy, and how to get it.” I didn’t read it. Too much effort. I used to have energy. The pedal hit the metal by the time I was 2 and my energy didn’t ease off the gas until I was 22. Back then, I stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning. ...

You’re not the boss of me; she is!

A lady’s voice cooed from my GPS, “In two miles, take the exit on the right.” A lady’s voice from the seat beside me countered, “Don’t do that. If you take the bypass, we’ll miss the thrift shop. And there’s another one on the other side of town.” Oh, joy. My life has ...