Editorial

To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling: A good cigar is a smoke, but a cigar box filled with trading cards is a treasure.

It has been a bittersweet experience seeing the mailbox flooded with college recruiting brochures addressed to my son Gideon.

I was reminded today of a comedy sketch by the group Monty Python. The scene involves a haughty orchestra composer, called Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson, who is harassed over owning a garden shed. The premise is wonderfully silly in the way only Monty Python can design, but it was word “shed” itself that got me thinking in the first place.

DEAR HARRIETTE: My daughter is pregnant and wants to give up her baby for adoption. I have offered to take custody of the baby and raise it to keep the baby in the family, but my daughter wants to give it to another family because she does not want it in her life -- or mine. I just can’t understand how that would be better. What if I had given her up? I told her this baby will not take away from her life, and any concern she may have about raising it I can help solve for her, but she’s not budging. I don’t want to see a part of my legacy disappear from my life. Can you help me understand why she feels this way? -- Want To Be a Grandmother

America could use a hearty laugh right now, but laughter doesn’t come easily because too many Americans have lost their sense of humor.

Reminiscing with one of my mother’s photo albums, I encountered a snapshot of a long-deceased neighbor (a dear, sweet man) who is still summed up by the phrase “He never met a stra