“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”  As was the period depicted in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, 2009 was a time of tremendous highs and precipitous lows.  The year witnessed the inauguration of the first U.S. President of African-American ancestry and the nomination and confirmation of our […]

2009 was one heck of a year.  Tiger Woods got caught with his pants down, we elected our first Black (okay, half Black) President, and the unemployment rate rose to its highest in nearly three decades.  This year, we also lost a number of celebrities, some of whom passed quietly and some of whom passed […]

  As of this writing, the mother of a Mansfield, Massachusetts soldier is fighting the U.S. government to be buried, when her time comes, with her only son.   With only a month left on his tour of duty in Iraq, Army Specialist Corey Shea became a fallen hero on November 12th, 2008.  As a […]

“The everyday kindnesses of the back roads make up for the acts of greed in the headlines.”  (Charles Kuralt)   Because the world has become so hectic and self-absorbed, small acts of kindness can have monumental impact.  Unexpected and asking no reward, the acts themselves are their own compensation, for they leave the recipients feeling […]

  The performer known today as Lady GaGa began her life as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta on March 28, 1986 in New York City.  Of Italian heritage, she was the first child welcomed by Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta.  At the age of 11, having demonstrated a talent for music, her parents considered enrolling her in […]

December 26th.  The Feast of the 7 Fishes is a memory, Santa has returned to the North Pole, and you are feeling as if you just finished ten rounds with the heavyweight champion of the world.  Do you feel at a loss when someone asks, “What did you get for Christmas?”  “Was it something you […]

Christmas Eve in America is celebrated with pagan rites, Santa Clause, Reindeer, Tree trimming, and last minute shopping in preparation for the birthday of Jesus the Christ.   In Italy it is a Holy Day, celebrating the eve of the birth of Jesus.  It is called The Vigil (La Vigilia) and is celebrated as a […]

Most kids anticipate Christmas with a growing sense of wonder and glee.  I wasn’t one of those kids.  Very much aware that my parents did not have much money, I dreaded the inevitable Christmas mornings when I had to appear at my friend Kim’s house to exchange presents with her, awed as her mom’s hot […]

In today’s fast-paced, rapidly changing world, the Holiday Season is upon us and gone before we know it.  As I consider my own Christmases past, I think about the simpler and yet – in many ways – more joyful Holidays of my youth.   Growing up in an Italian-American family in South Philadelphia, I viewed […]

“In the background of the consciousness of the world, waiting as silence and moonlight wait above the flairs and shouts, the hurdy-gurdys and quarrels of a village fair, is the knowledge that all mankind is one brotherhood, that God is universal and impartial, Father of mankind, and that only in that universal service can mankind […]