Among the television correspondents I most admire is a man with an unlikely name: Fred de Sam Lazaro, a regular on “PBS NewsHour.”
Since this program first appeared, I have valued its presentation of the news. To my mind, it far surpasses the other news broadcasts that are offered to us each evening.
Most people who know MIT associate it with sciences such as physics and chemistry or maybe engineering and economics. But relatively few members of the general public are aware of this university’s activities in aging.
Since 1999, MIT has promoted studies of gerontology in a variety of subjects. Its work, under the title AgeLab, has produced findings of wide interest to those in the field.
“I know that there’s much more we have to do, but the news isn’t all bad … 10.9 million new jobs. 10 million more Americans with health insurance. Manufacturing has grown. Our deficits have shrunk. Our dependence on foreign oil is down. Clean energy is up. More young Americans are graduating from high school and earning college degrees than ever before …”
This parade of achievements comes from my friend, Gerry. It’s his way of inviting me to a New Year’s Day party at his home.
A little over a month ago, a notable business leader did something that attracted a great deal of media attention. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, declared that he was gay.
If it had happened a few decades ago, this action might have had negative consequences for Cook and for his company. In this case, happily, it did not.
At lunch recently with a couple of friends — neither one a Catholic — I was only a little surprised to find how enthusiastic they feel about Pope Francis. The Pew Research Center has found that 56 percent of non-Catholics welcome a major change in direction for the Catholic Church.
How often have you been to a birthday party where the gifts were given by the person whose birthday it was? That had never happened to me until last week.
All of us guests, some thirty in number, had gathered in the clubhouse of a Boston-area apartment building.
Most of us were in later life, me especially. (I’ve gotten used to that age dominance by now.)
A poll among us Codgers has revealed a split. Three of us have emerged as supporters of the Obama’s adminisTration’s attack on ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), while two have opposed it. (Two other members were not present.)