Sam Barry's Blog, page 12
April 12, 2010
The Daily Sam: The End Is Near
Recently I met a young woman on a flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. She was a cute, vivacious, blond-haired high school senior. She reminded me of my daughter Laura, who is one year younger. The girl had been accepted to Yale and Harvard, and we discussed the pros and cons of going to one school or the other, a subject about which I know next to nothing. The primary wisdom I had to offer was ...
April 9, 2010
The Daily Sam: The Winchester Mystery House
The other day my daughter Laura and I went to San Jose's Winchester Mystery House. We San Franciscans look down our nose at San Jose. We also look down our nose at Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, and Omaha. This is because we think a lot of ourselves in San Francisco, even though, frankly, Omaha is more centrally located.The Winchester Mystery ...
April 5, 2010
The Daily Sam: Happy Birthday, Phil!
Today is my brother Phil's birthday. Phil lives in Roswell, Georgia, outside Atlanta, and at one point Newt Gingrich was Phil's representative in Congress. But Phil never capitalized on that relationship. It wouldn't be like Phil to capitalize on a relationship. He is one of the gentler souls in the world, and his focus is on his marriage to his lovely wife Grace and raising their beautiful ...
April 1, 2010
The Daily Sam: A Matter of the Utmost Importance
Today I would like to talk to you about a matter of the utmost importance, as indicated in the headline above. I can give you a call, or we can meet at the Starbucks on California and Battery in San Francisco. It's going to take me a while to get there because I'm in Nashville right now. Come to think of it, maybe the phone would be better. Or you can read on.Reading is the very issue I wish ...
March 29, 2010
The Daily Sam: Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
March 29 — Tonight we will be observing Pesach, or Passover, in our home. Coincidently, tonight there will also be a full moon. I don't know if anyone's ever noticed, but the first night of Passover always occurs at the same time as the full moon. Coincidence? I think not.Passover is celebrated on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan, during the season of Toyota. The story of the ...
March 25, 2010
The Daily Sam: The Video-Game-Industrial Complex
Video games, you may have noticed, are big. Entire generations have been lost to video games. A recent Congressional report on the alarming amount of time Americans spend playing video games was cancelled when the aides responsible for producing the report became addicted to EverQuest II. There is a worldwide epidemic of video gaming, especially among young people, aka the little whipper ...
March 18, 2010
The Daily Sam: Anaheim—the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy
I am in Anaheim, California attending the annual Religion Education Congress, a convention sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Congress is the nation's largest annual gathering of Roman Catholics. Just short of 40,000 people are expected to attend the event at the Anaheim Convention Center, the place where dreams are made.I am here representing HarperOne, promoting the books we ...
March 15, 2010
The Daily Sam: Mind Your Own Business
Have you ever noticed the extraordinary amount of attention we pay to one another's business? I don't really know where all this interest comes from—maybe back when we were hunter-gatherers it was a matter of survival that we kept an eye on what the other members of the tribe were up to. Maybe further back, before our ancestors came down out of the tress, it was good to know what the guy ...
March 12, 2010
The Daily Sam: I'm a Loser
I'm a loser. Why? Because I'm not a winner. Furthermore, I am on the side of the losers.Some years ago I was a Presbyterian minister. Although it was somewhat disguised behind a veil of piety, I discovered that ministers do play the winner/loser game. Winning is determined by the size of the church, or by the coolness of location, or by how righteous and dedicated a pastor is, or by how much ...
March 8, 2010
The Daily Sam: Jeff Bridges, the Oscars, and Me
Many years ago I lived in West Los Angeles near Culver City. When you live in certain parts of Los Angeles you cross paths with the stars—literally. You see them driving by when you are at a stop light, or you are told they just ate in the restaurant where you are about to have lunch. Once I followed a woman driving a black Roles Royce who I was pretty sure was Goldie Hawn from Venice Boulevard ...
