Author Archives: Bob Welbaum

Definitely Not Fading Away

The June 2017 issue of Runner’s World magazine has an article that caught my eye.  It’s entitled “Not Fading Away” about runners age 50 and older, which is definitely me.  Included are “Tips for Running In Your Later Years”, like “Backing Off” and running on soft surfaces.  But what really got my attention was that

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Some Facts About Mother’s Day

Sunday, May 14 was our annual national Mother’s Day.  In commemoration, the Writer’s Almanac published some background information about how we got here.  Like so many milestones, it can be traced back to one determined person. Mother’s Day was first celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia in 1908 when a woman named Anna Jarvis held a

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Pardoning Jefferson Davis

Civil wars a horrible, brutal ordeals that can scar for decades, if not centuries.   The Spanish Civil War was especially traumatic, and I’m beginning to doubt that Syria will ever be a viable political entity again. Which is another example of how unique our nation is.  We endured our own civil war, and yes, it

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Another Reason To Like Bugs

Disney’s California Adventure and Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme parks both have an audio-animatronic and video theater show entitled “It’s Tough To Be a Bug”.  One of the show’s messages is how essential bugs are to our world (“We’re Pollinators!”).  Recently I’ve found another reason why bugs are so good to have around. According to the

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Wild Worlds Around Us

I have always been fascinated with the stars.  Now technological breakthroughs are giving us tools to explore the star systems around us, despite the unfathomable distances involved. What we are finding is stranger than fiction.   These include huge black holes, colliding galaxies, and planets with bizarre orbits.   One source for information is Astronomy magazine  http://www.astronomy.com. 

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How To Put Your Life Back Together

This is another interesting book I’ve heard about, but haven’t read.  So, for what it’s worth… “Susan Burton’s world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed by a van driving down their street. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Susan self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine, then crack. As

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Just What Were the 1960s, Anyway?

When I was growing up in the 1960s, there was some speculation as to how that era would be remembered.  Would it be the Nuclear Age or the Space Age? Now it’s become pretty clear it was actually the Transistor And Birth-Control-Pill Age. I was reminded of this because we’ve recently passed two milestones, according

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