Columns

Think quick: What comes to mind when you hear the name Benito Mussolini? Bad guy. Bellicose. Bald.

If you want to impress the children in your life — in my case, that would be five grandkids who all have a sweet tooth — break the exciting news that you have arranged for them to own, free of charge, the coolest vehicle ever: the neighborhood ice cream truck.

Dear Attorney General Merrick Garland:

The automated call rang my wife’s phone a little after 3 a.m., saying it was the big box store’s automated fraud prevention line, complete with the company’s number on the caller ID.

Here’s a trend that may not bode well for the future of our country: According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 40 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds have summer jobs — down from 75 percent of teens a generation ago.

The vegetable garden yield this season is less than we hoped, but the corresponding weight loss has been a pleasant surprise.

Surely there’s much as we age that reminds us of the rapidity of the years that have passed. For those who enjoy music, you’ve surely noted that songwriters and singers have always used age-related lyrics.

As a relic from another time (the clock right now says 10:47 a.m.), I am known to my grandchildren as a dinosaur. I am also known, at least at a park where I recently brought two of the kiddies for some fun and frolic, as the Playground Grandpa.

State law requires that every item sold actually be able to do what the item is designed to do, which is called “merchantability”. In other words, if I buy a snowblower that cannot blow snow, that inability to do what the snowblower is designed to do violates the legally required warranty of merchantability. How long a purchased item is to be merchantable is defined as a reasonable period of time considering the price and character of the purchased item.

Regal. Elegant. Stunningly beautiful. This is how I have always thought of Rachel Robinson, the widow of baseball great Jackie Robinson.