Collateral Education

A poster suggesting that we “Love people, use things” was tacked to the kitchen wall of my childhood home, hung there by mother in a spurt of creativity. “I like the sentiment and the colors work nicely with the decor, don’t you think?” she said, by way of explanation as she sipped her coffee. I […]

A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi

For some reason, which to this day remains a mystery to us both, my good friend Patti Bailey and I were placed in an advanced French class upon entering Notre Dame Prep as freshman so very many years ago. Perhaps it was our grade school record that led them to make certain assumptions about our […]

Dame Maggie Ward

Yes, this is a post about Maggie Ward, NDP’s drama coach for more than 30 years, but don’t expect something out of Glee. NDP is no William McKinley High School of TV fame (thankfully), and Maggie Ward is neither a Will Schuster-wanna-be, nor a diva in her own right. In fact, the only theatrics she […]

STEAMed Chicken

Back when I was in advertising and making TV commercials, I used to love to walk through the set and listen to the film crew as they worked. I’m talking about the grips and gaffers, soundmen and camera assistants. These are the guys who did all the technical work, which required a lot of heavy […]

Blue Ribbon Year

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle. Does excellence matter? In an era where we give our kids trophies for striking out and kudos for feeling good about themselves (if not their actual skills) it begs the question…does excellence matter? The U.S. Department of Education thinks […]