All About Mick's World

When you are five, your parents are immortal, and will live on forever... When you are fifteen, you understand that your parents are human, and at some time will pass on, but not for a long, long time... When you are thirty, you recognize that your parents have noticeably aged, but will still be there for some time... When you are fifty, you make time in your life to visit your parents, wondering how many more times you can... When you are fifty-eight, you stand in a hospital hallway outside your mother’s room, discussing hospice care with her doctor... May 10, 2017 Picking up my car from the body shop on a mid-May Wednesday afternoon, the familiar sound of my phone ringing interrupts my conversation with the technician. I check the caller ID and see it’s the nursing home where my mother resides. “Hello.” I listen to the voice on the other end. Mother has fallen out of her wheelchair, and has a cut on her forehead and is being transported to the ER. (This is not

The Pantagraph Comments Section Aka: You Don’t Know My Name, So I Can Post What I Want For several years, this subject has been a thorn in my side. If you are a regular reader (or even a casual one) of The Pantagraph on-line, you’ve likely come across the comments section after most articles. And if you are at all like me, you are appalled at the hatred displayed in some of the blatant vitriol allowed. In my case, the comments I found most disconcerting were concerning bicycles, Obama, LBGT rights, college sports, politics and politicians, climate change, traffic in BloNo, …..apparently just about any subject is ripe for targeting with foul comments. I believe one of the biggest factors enabling these comments is Lee Enterprises (The Pantagraph’s parent company) policy of allowing complete anonymity  for the commenters. This policy allows individuals to post things that I cannot imagine any civil person uttering to a fellow human in today's society. Apparently I am not alo