I do a lot of writing and editing in the field of public health. Vaccinations are always addressed. The message is, “VACCINATE! Don’t listen to the crazies!” There are 1,000 ways to say this and I know every single one of them.

Mesmerizing. And is that a Calvin and Hobbes calendar hanging behind the toothbrusher?

That is Cissy Houston doing backup for Aretha Franklin’s rendition of “Rolling in the Deep,” isn’t it? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a backup singer so obviously contemptuous of the material she was given to work with. Related: I don’t think any hat worn to any inauguration could beat the one Aretha wowed us with at…

On The Mary Tyler Moore show she was the lecherous slattern who was always after Lou Grant and was very biting and bitchy toward everyone else. I’m sure there was a little typecasting going into the GG casting process but thank God casting director on the Golden Girls crew gave us Betty White as Rose.

I don’t know about that. I’m getting a little bit of a gay vibe off the guy. (I am gay, but admittedly my gaydar hasn’t worked for 20 years.) Why else would a guy be so obsessed about other men marrying other men?

I gave them monogrammed thermoses and you can’t return those things.

This comment will get lost but maybe you’ll read it.

At the 2004 Democratic National Convention Teresa Heinz Kerry, who’s whiter than some members of the British Royal Family, said, “As an African American…” and it’s true, she was born in Mozambique. For that matter her husband, John F. Kerry, has for decades implied that his middle name is something like Fitzgerald or…

It looks like a print ad for cigarettes or dishwashing liquid from 1972.

I’ve whined about this before. They are essentially making adult clothing that will fit children, or at least waifs. Are you a guy at least 6’ tall and slightly overweight (me) or my husband (muscular)? Nothing for you! What do you mean you have shoulders and biceps and forearms thicker than pencils? Do you have an…

Spock is an excellent cat name. I almost named one of my dogs Bones (because he liked them so much) but I was afraid poeople would think it was a reference to Bones the TV show.

Mine was a floor model from Design Within Reach so it was only $5,999.

Have you ever heard of Modern Drunkard Magazine? One of my faves.

The New York equivalent of a bindle is a tattered several-years-old Fairway bag brimming with old copies of the New York Times. The Upper West Side might as well be one giant Hooverville.

I wonder how many people would recognize it for what it is (or what it’s based on.) I wonder how we know what it is, since I think they went away with the Great Depression. I was not born in the 1920s, although some days I feel like it, so I have no conscious memory of seeing anyone carrying one. Comic books or…

I was just up in Boston and a surprising number of parents I talked to kept chickens. This is not legal in every town in the Commonwealth but where it is it’s surprisingly common. It’s good for the kids, they feed the chickens and treat them like pets, and apparently a “farm”-fresh egg (these people live in suburbs,…

Paul Revere was a silversmith and engraver by trade but times were tough when Boston was occupied by the British. To make ends meet he apparently used his tools to practice dentistry. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” (That’s a quote from Jefferson, not…

Bamboo is incredibly invasive and will grow almost anywhere it seems. A popular party gift around here is a “lucky bamboo.” A little bamboo shoot in a nice little container. I got one in February. I barely water the thing, it’s out of direct sunlight, and it’s thriving in its little tasteful glass container, which I…

Nah, I bet the goats are American. What American can resist an all-you-can-eat buffet?

Off topic, as I always am, half the cast of “The Mary Tyler Moore” show have been rumored to be at death’s door for years now, especially Valerie “Rhoda” Harper, but except for Ted “Ted Baxter” Knight they still soldier on. Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Ed Asner, Georgia Engle, Gavin MacLeod, all…