Although Labor Day has come and gone, as it does every year, I am always amazed at how so many of my neighbors actually think that, with the passing of Labor Day, forecasted cooler temperatures should be de rigueur on the part of those weather mavens out there in charge of our climate. 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but Labor Day does not constitute an official change of seasons. Yeah, it means that the kids will soon be going back to school, parking spaces will slowly start to reappear as

Happy birthday to my beloved Grace. The big 39. Another candle on your cake, but it's so much more than that. Another year of amazing memories, inside jokes, uncontrollable laughter, crazed children, demented dogs, unhinged cats, humpbacked lizards, rude turtles, and whistling guinea pigs, but more importantly, another year of having you by my side each and every day. I spent days upon days thinking about what in the world I could possibly do for you that would make this birthday amazing. I

Just a quick reminder to all of you out there that the Broad Channel VFW Post 260 will be hosting it's annual "Pig Roast" this Saturday (July 14) from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Everyone I speak to who intends to attend this porcine gala has been psyched and why shouldn't they be? After all, the same old hot dogs and hamburgers get old after a while, but put on a pig roast and you've got a show! The most often asked question is "Will the pig have an apple in its mouth?" It will not. 

Other queries have

Well, we all should have seen this coming. After 116 years, Mondelez International, Nabisco's parent company, has ceded to the onslaught of ethical complaints lodged by PETA against the packaging on Barnum's Animals Crackers depicting exotic animals in circus cages on the box of crackers which is, of course, in this day and age quite politically incorrect.

Now, instead of showing the animals in cages (implying that they're traveling in boxcars for the circus), the newly-designed boxes feature

I am not a big fan of dining out but when I do decide to visit a food establishment, I want to be treated like a human being and not like a number. The Cracker Barrel Restaurant chain had this customer relations thing down to a science and I used to frequent these restaurants a lot in years gone by. Every Cracker Barrel also had a big fireplace replete with a bearskin rug, which I absolutely loved, but unfortunately the management of Cracker Barrel has a policy prohibiting customers from taking

This past Sunday, I happened to bump into one of my younger neighbors and, after exchanging pleasantries, I blurted out, "Hot enough for you?" As soon as the question left my mouth, I immediately regretted asking it as I knew full well that this particular neighbor is a not only a die-hard vegan and a card-carrying tree-hugger, but also a devout disciple of the religion of pending apocalyptic climate change. "Better get used to it...", my friend replied, "Climate change is a global matter. The