Columns

My grandma’s house on Spicewood Court is the nicest house in which I’ve ever stayed all night. A world away from our home across the city, my grandma lived in a proper neighborhood. Her neighborhood had a name – and sidewalks and large shade trees and a pool with a deep end and a clubhouse. My grandma’s house had two stories, extra bedrooms, a two-car garage, a front porch, a back patio and well-tended flower beds, full bird feeders, and a kind of crisscross pattern on the windows which made it feel like a storybook cottage. As children, my younger brother and I spent a lot of time at the house on Spicewood Court, and the room I remember most is the kitchen.

I am tired of celebrating the 100th anniversary of this, or the 75th anniversary of that. What makes those numbers so special? I told Mary Ellen I had big plans in a few years for our 53rd anniversary. “Great,” she said, “but what about our 50th? I’m sure you have even bigger plans for that one.”

A reader named Alice emailed, saying her grandchildren seem to think they are the “Food Expiration Date Police.” They go through her ‘fridge and try to throw away expired food.

The problem with moms is that they’re old from the first day you get one. The moment you lock eyes with your mom it is clear she is larger than you are, older than you are and smarter than you are (at least for a few years). She doesn’t drool and never sticks her thumb in her eye.

The Indiana General Assembly went home. We breathed a sigh of relief. Governor Holcomb didn’t veto any of their silly bills. We were disappointed, but silent. The primaries were over. We hoped for a moment of reflection.

Did you know that when you prepare asparagus you probably make 12 mistakes? Hold on a few minutes while I explain why I am asking this question.

We’re an unlikely trio.

So often these days I find myself wishing we could find a way to make our politics and our public life reflect who we Americans really are.

The pandemic has spun off a number of curve balls, but if you’re a Hoosier mayor or city council member, grab your shades, because the future is bright.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg received a great deal of criticism lately for taking paternity leave. It is a time of snarled port traffic, understocked grocery shelves and growing worry about supply chains. I think these critiques are in bad faith and unworthy of an intellectually confident political movement. But, that’s where we are now. Congress could spend serious effort to ease logistics problems in any number of ways; the private sector is already at work. Outside of complaints about Mr. Buttigieg, Congress has been silent on the matter. Let me make three points.