How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons | How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons
Jan.18.2010
To be a football fan is to suffer from a mild form of insanity, and the United States is clearly nuts. I have lived many places, but nowhere did I learn more about the craziness of American football fandom than when I was the pastor of Florence Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, a city where...
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Jan.13.2010
The other day at the work lunch table I learned, once again, that I am a complete moron when it comes to food. This wasn’t much of a revelation, as I can only cook three things: tacos, spaghetti, and tuna salad sandwiches. My idea of an interesting restaurant is one that serves one of these three...
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Jan.08.2010
The loveable sea lions who lived at Pier 39 in San Francisco are gone. After twenty years hanging out on the wooden docks, smoking cigarettes, harassing people for spare change, and wolf-whistling at passing women, they suddenly disappeared. They followed their leader, Marlon Brando, and rode off...
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Jan.04.2010
According to the cleverly-named Global Information Industry Center at San Diego University, Americans are being bombarded with new information. Sponsored by the Alfred “Punky” Sloan Foundation, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel, LSI, Oracle, and Seagate—all organizations that are deeply concerned about...
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Dec.31.2009
In this coming year I resolve not to be selfish, dishonest, and driven by fear and anger. What do you think are my chances?
At this time of year it is customary to make resolutions to change our lives in small and big ways. We perform this same exercise throughout the year, making resolutions to...
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Dec.28.2009
The other day I went to Paul “Mister Bass Man” Olguin’s house for his annual holiday party. Paul is one of my musician colleagues and is the only person I know who is half Scottish, half Cuban, which has resulted in a form of mild insanity. “Imagine my inner dialogues,” says Paul. Actually, I don’t...
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Dec.22.2009
I was raised to believe in miracles. My dad, David Barry, was a Midwestern-born Presbyterian minister who dedicated himself to improving people’s lives in the toughest New York neighborhoods. He knew that he would lose many more battles than he ever won, but he believed every small victory was...
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Dec.18.2009
In light of the recent very public marital scandal involving Des Moines, Iowa handyman Hubert Bothem, it seems that the time has come for the Daily Sam to step up and offer some basic tips and guidelines for how to properly have an affair. America has changed since the days when George Washington...
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Dec.11.2009
Once again the holidays are looming, with all that this glorious season means: guilt, fear, hostility, mindless crowds, forced gaiety at work, over-consumption of food, alcohol, and other substances, the torturous repetition of “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy,” and soft jazz...
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Dec.03.2009
Religion has a sex problem.
Here’s the thing—all the world’s major religions say God is a guy, or if there is more than one God, then the Alpha-God is male. Oh sure, theologians and religious leaders can claim this god-talk is metaphorical, but the boy’s club mentality doesn’t stop with the divine...
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