*********LONG BLOG ALERT—SORRY EVERYBODY******* (I hope it’s worth it….) Charles Swindoll (not that you know who that is) tells a funny story about a nine-year-old named Danny who came bursting out of Sunday school like a crazy monkey. His eyes were darting in every direction as he tried to locate either mom or dad. Finally, after a quick search, he grabbed his Dad by the leg and yelled, “Man, that story of Moses and all those people crossing the Red Sea was great!” His father looked down, smiled, and asked the boy to tell him about it. “Well, the Israelites...

Of course all of you are too young to remember, but there was once a wonderful comedian by the name of Jack Benny. He made several films, including “The Importance of Being Earnest” (the Wilde play), had a regular radio show, and was able to make the leap to television. Jack Benny’s character was known for two things, playing the violin badly, and being cheap. One of the most famous of his radio bits involved Jack leaving the studio one night after the show. As he leaves the studio, a robber points a gun at him and says, “Your money or your life!” There was a long pause. The robber repeats,...

There’s this man with whom I teach. I have to say that he can be a real pain in the ass. He’s not exactly what you would call a team player, so, from time to time, he makes it rather difficult to get things done. The truth is that the guy is a real iconoclast. He loves to piss people off. He refuses to teach using the same curriculum we are all supposed to use. He never disciplines his students and they get away with breaking myriad school rules in his class. As a result, other kids feel envious of his students because they get away with murder. On more than one occasion, various principals...

One of my fondest memories growing up as a child in my parents’ home was the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking every Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mother used to bake Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, and Chocolate Chip Tollhouse Cookies every holiday. The aroma used to invade my senses and lead me to the kitchen where the baking was underway. My mom always used to need to bake twice as many cookies as she wanted because my brother, my father, and I always consumed half of them before they could ever cool down. My mom’s cookies were the best. And there is a secret to good chocolate chip cookies....

I love seeing the world, but I hate to travel. It’s so stressful. I mean, you have to pack and make sure you haven’t forgotten anything. Then you have to get to the airport. And the airport is about the most stressful place you could want to be. You have to wait in one line after the other. They take your luggage and search it, so you hope to God there’s nothing in there that can get you into trouble because it seems like security keeps adding things to the “you better not take these things on the airplane if you know what’s good for you” list. Then you have to walk through that metal...