Tales from the Corners

It seems that as we age, the more anniversaries we experience. 10 years here. 20 years there. And you realize, “How did that amount time pass?” Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of 25 and 30 year anniversaries that impact my life. From artists releasing anniversary editions of their huge releases to movie re-releases, this blogger can get quite melancholy at times. A few months back, pop music duo Tears for Fears released a 30 year anniversary package of their ground-breaking album, Songs from the Big Chair . The three hits that spawned off of that album resonate to this moment in many Generation X’ers and Baby Boomers’ minds to this day. In case you forgot, those three hits include “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Shout,” and “Head Over Heels.” 1985 was Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith’s huge year-in case you never knew, those are the two main players in Tears for Fears. They also have a great backing band. The duo was far from being a one-hit wonder. They followed up Sound fro...

Forget StarWars – think more along the lines of BreakfastWars ! That’s right: BreakFastWars . I’m referring of course to the “Breakfast Wars” between fast food giant McDonald’s versus Taco Bell. It’s well known that people of the world have been feasting on breakfast offerings at McDonald’s legendary hamburger outlets for years. From the classic Egg McMuffin, Sausage McGriddle to the filling Steak, Egg & Cheese Biscuit and Hotcakes & Sausage, McDonald’s has enjoyed a long, comfortable ride to “Profit Land” from its vast morning menu selection. Taco Bell has been challenging the hamburger giant thus creating the Breakfast Wars for the past year. A recent volley in the morning breakfast battle was the Waffle Taco. That’s right, a waffle shaped as a taco with all of the morning fixings one would expect like eggs, cheese, tomatoes and more, has been on Taco Bell’s menu in the morning. Yum, right? I feel the ole waist line expanding just by writing out “Waffe Taco.” Well, n...

Let's face it, we have too much to worry about as we age -- from cholesterol readings to sun overexposure to osteoporosis. Guess what --  here comes "tech neck." Yes, that's right, as we age, most of us need to be aware of this thing that experts call, "tech neck." "Tech neck" comes courtesy of our ever-growing dependence on digital devices. Apparently, staring at devices like your Smartphone, tablet, e-reader or laptop causes those pesky saggy necklines which make us look far older than our actual present ages. How many times are we looking down at these devices? Those who conducted the studies on our digital use say that many of us look down at least 150 times a day at our devices. The experts say that bending the neck harms its delicate skin and muscles. Combine that digital usage along with sun damage and you have a "tech neck" problem on your hands. Great, here's another affliction that advances the aging process. In the...

I never quite got the whole "March Madness thing."  Being on the periphery of sports-related fanaticism, it took me ages to understand the madness behind March. I'll explain from my mostly-uniformed perspective what this "phenomenon" truly is these days. For the "March Madness unaware," the world of college basketball whittles down the winners of great competing basketball teams who will finally meet in a championship of some sort one day in the near future. To me, it seems like the distant future. This scheme is depicted in a bracket graphic where the competing teams are shown from what looks like hundreds to suddenly 8 to the final four and then obviously two teams meet to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association's big trophy. It seems like it takes forever. As one can tell, I'm just not that into March Madness. To me, March is all about saying goodbye to winter, dealing with Daylight Saving Time, full moons, a Friday the 13t...

The Atlanta metro area is no stranger to development. That concept has never been stronger here in Peachtree Corners. As most folks here in Peachtree Corners know, there has been much reported on the future of a retreat known as Simpsonwood. This prime tract of beautifully wooded land is 227 acres and valued at $100 million. Simpsonwood has been owned and operated by The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. The organization can no longer afford to stay, so it's looking to sell to an interested party.  The county court has just ruled that homeowners do not have standing to block the sale of Simpsonwood. Now, the judge simply followed the law which, in this case, was quite upsetting to him. The basic fact is that the property is indeed private. Thus, the owners have the right to do what they wish to do with the property.  Judging from how from how these matters have been dealt with in the past, many in my neighborhood feel we could end up with (most...

After a teaser in autumn 2014, Apple finally unveiled its Apple Watch. Only time will tell if this watch will catch on throughout the world. One group of experts stay that it all depends on the apps. Others say success will happen for ease of use. Still others say style matters. No matter what the analysts are talking about, Apple is taking the plunge. ‘App-wise’ the watch looks like that ‘apps’ will not be a problem, but how many apps can a user load before the device’s memory explodes? The functionality of those apps look like they will be fine, but I wonder if certain apps will cause glitches. If I owned such a watch, any exercise or health app would be my ‘number one app.’ The Apple Watch’s portability cannot be beat, but the devil is in the details. Apparently I would still need to take my iPhone along to make the GPS feature happen. In other words, this device is useless to me. In a perfect world, I would be able to track my runs while most likely listen to iTunes while out...

 One day I'm doing my late winter afternoon run on a spring-like day and the next, there's threat of black ice. Welcome to a typical early March. Early March has always been non-committal when it comes to the weather as far as I am able to remember. When growing up, there were certain years on Ohio's North Coast when we would be teased with a beautiful thaw in late February and/or early March. We enjoyed the mild temperatures for a few days and then, "Bam," a snow storm and a few more weeks of snow covering the earth. I confess that those late winter/early spring snowy days were depressing to me. Perhaps others were and have always been OK with those northern Ohio snowy days, but I think there have always been more people like me. Gray days filled with dirty snow never helped my psyche growing up in one of Cleveland's east side suburbs.  I think that Clevelanders never asked for much.  I recall folks who were living around me being so grateful that the r...