I've just lived through one of the most frustrating weeks of my life. It felt like I spent the entire seven days doing just one thing – waiting. I hate waiting. I waited for phone calls that never came, for mail that didn't arrive, and for a repairman who never showed. I waited in the doctor's office and the post office and the coffee shop. I waited in a checkout line so long I finally had to give up and go back to work without my0 lunch. On the job, it seemed every assignment I tackled could not be completed without waiting for someone else to do his part first, which, of course, he (or she) never did. I sent polite e-mail reminders, and waited some more. I made phone calls and was put on hold. Several times I waited till the phone grew permanently attached to my ear, only to be told he'd call me back. But he didn't. ...more

February 15, 2009

"Descended from the apes!" exclaimed the wife of the bishop of Worcester. "Let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known." ...more

February 9, 2009

A local family inspired by a fable and the memory of their matriarch will donate on Monday the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal to 80 Tampa Bay area recipients. ...more

November 23, 2008

Church bells tolled, candles flickered under falling snow and national flags, adorned with black ribbons, flew in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Saturday as the country marked the anniversary of the start of a Soviet-era famine that killed millions. ...more

November 23, 2008

And there was great celebration across the land that the eight years of famine and pestilence were at last at an end so that the people were filled with hope and noble expectations. The scribes ceased their ceaseless lamentations and were overcome by joy. And it was good. ...more

November 21, 2008

At a time of drought, skyrocketing food prices, crippling inflation and intensifying street fighting, many of the aid workers whom millions of Somalis depend on for survival are fleeing their posts or, in some cases, the country. ...more

July 20, 2008

Think about this: Shortly after Bush took office, he launched an endless war. Then, there were record numbers of fires. Not only in number but in size and devastation. ...more

May 4, 2008