Paul Merrill
Rachel went to the new American Girl Doll store near Denver a few weeks back. After she came home, I asked, “What did you think?” Her first reply: “It was too expensive.” I was a proud dad. I did not join her for that excursion. When I happened to be near the store a week …
Continue reading “At what point do we become a bad influence?”
…Why people throw things out the window of their car. That is a mentality I just cannot get a grasp of. I remember a friend in Texas who grew up in New York state. He married a woman from “the Valley” of Texas – way south. Whenever he visited her family, he was amazed at …
Chris Brogan and I first met when I was in Africa. We “met” through the wonderful world of blogging. I was working as a manager at a non-profit organization whose Africa headquarters were in Nairobi, Kenya. I found Chris’s blog through another long-forgotten social media authority. Chris’s blog quickly made it to the top of …
As I have traveled to different places in the world, I am always amused when people claim, “We have no accent.” It’s true – if they have never lived anywhere else. But my contention is that we all have accents. I admit that there are standard accents. In England, there is the BBC broadcaster’s accent, …
When this coin was minted in 1971, it could buy a lot more than it will today. I will never understand world economies. Why does the price of petroleum go up and down? Why does the stock market dive when there is a the slightest whiff of a rumor about some economic change, even if …
This lovely door handle broke. Toyota took almost two months to ship us a replacement. I thought that length of time was amazing. Sometimes the “western world” has disadvantages compared with the “developing world”. If I had a broken door handle with this same car in Kenya, I could have gotten a replacement the same …
Remember the slogan, “Let your fingers do the walking”? That was for an ancient concept called the yellow pages. As many have noted, phone books are redundant, if you have access to the internet. (Or in Nairobi, Kenya, they are just simply bad. About 90% of the time, the phone book didn’t have the number …
So you see, the first time we lived in Kenya (’91-’94), we made friends with some Maasai. They have these really cool spears that look like they’re from Roman times. If you’ve seen how the traditional men dress, you’ll also be reminded of the Roman era. Their shukas look like togas. We had to get …
My mom died suddenly yesterday evening. Jean was a month shy of 80. She had struggled with congestive heart failure for many years, and her ticker just quit ticking. She lived with chronic pain, so it’s sweet relief for her to be at the side of Jesus, who she devoted her life to. She was …
Yes, Muslim men in Kenya ride bicycles. You should too, though I would suggest wearing clothes that are culturally appropriate for where you are. (I took this shot in May 2007.)