By Bob Batch Way back in the seventies there was a show called “The Six Million Dollar Man” about a guy rebuilt with robotic parts after a jet fighter accident. “We can make him better” was the famous line in the intro. These replacement parts turn him into what science fiction writers termed a cyborg, [...]
By Bob Batch It was the ball field, Veteran’s field, from when I can first remember long ago. The place where Ray Calentoni, Edgewater’s premier recreation director, whom I remember from my childhood, launched a thousand bases in the halcyon summers of Connie Mack Little League. This is the field where the Boy Scouts pitched [...]
By Bob Batch Last month there was severe Powerball fever everywhere when the ‘Mega Millions’ was in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars. Now you are talking the kind of money it takes to become a Presidential candidate! People where going crazy imagining them selves walking around with that big prize and living a [...]
By Bob Batch One of the biggest topics last month was the return of Mad Men, a show about people working in advertising back in the 1960’s when the proverse power of creating desire for products began to tighten its grip on our culture. Strange, the things we are nostalgic for, huh?! I haven’t actually [...]
By Bob Batch I guess almost everybody thought escalators were a big deal when they were a little kid. It was almost like a ride at the amusement park, going up to the second floor at Macy’s or some big Department store. It was probably the best part of going shopping with your Mom besides, [...]
By Bob Batch It might be a little confusing if you were trying to decide what was healthy to eat by reading the publications on the newsstand, or listening to some of the ‘health’ reports on television. Typically, in magazines they trumpet some quick loss diet plan, and three pages later they’ve got twenty recipes [...]
By Bob Batch We should have made December 21st or 22nd, the Winter Solstice, the start of the New Year. It really would have made more sense to start the calendar on the day after the shortest day of the year, you know. Unless of course, we decided to start it on the day after [...]
The editor of the paper called me the other day with breaking news. She wanted me to write something about the Barnes & Noble in town closing! Well, I really wasn’t sure if I was supposed to try to rally everyone to occupy Barnes & Noble to change their mind, or bid a sad farewell [...]
Remember that old ‘Who’ song where Roger Daltry screams, “We won’t get fooled again” over the strains of pulsing rock guitar? It was almost an anthem for a generation that was going to change the world into a place where there was no war, inequality or senseless violence. It looks like we settled for purposeful [...]
A couple of months ago I went with my daughter to the book store near where we live and was a little taken aback when she went to the ‘Teen Paranormal Romance’ section to pick out a book. I was aware that in today’s teen culture almost everyone who is anyone on TV is dating [...]
