Meet Remy, the wire-haired fox terrier. According to his humans on Facebook, he passed away last week after a happy dog life of over 17 years. His family is missing him, of course, but they will be chuckling over some of his antics for a long time – like the one...

January 6 marks the end of one season on the Christian calendar – Christmastide – and the beginning of a new one – Epiphany. With origins in the Eastern church stretching back centuries, Epiphany celebrates a variety of events, including the baptism of Jesus, the miracle at Cana, the Nativity, and the...

My wife surprised me with a whirlwind trip to New York at Christmas. Seeing the Big Apple during the holidays was on my bucket list, so I soaked in everything from the sparkling Rockefeller Center tree to the Rockettes holiday show. It was a grand trip made even grander by our...

I turned 60 last year, so I can really identify with these quips about the New Year: -Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to.  -Santa Claus and the dropping of the ball on Times Square have a...

“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). How well did Jacob Marley, the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge, know this! In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the spectral Marley groans under the weight of the chain he forged in life, links heavy with the cash-boxes,...

  Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) – but how many of us really believe that? Certainly not Ebenezer Scrooge, the infamous miser of “A Christmas Carol.” Charles Dickens, his creator, described him as “hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had...

  In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the first spirit foretold by Jacob Marley is The Ghost of Christmas Past. “It was a strange figure,” Dickens writes — a white-haired apparition with the face of a child and jet of light beaming from its head. The Spirit of Christmas Past...

Everybody knows the story of Ebenezer Scrooge  —  the “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner” of Charles Dickens’ immortal novel, A Christmas Carol. The very mention of the name “Scrooge” conjures up the image of a stingy, spiteful old man, and his most famous catchword, “Bah, humbug,” has become a staple...

Last year at about this time, I got a letter from my doctor. He wrote that my PSA was high, which is a blood test to detect prostate cancer. He advised me to find a urologist and get a biopsy. I stared at the letter, dumbfounded, for several seconds before...

  I sat uncomfortably in the nicely-furnished room of the doctor’s office, trying to make small talk with my wife. Finally, the urologist walked in, exchanged brief pleasantries and sat down. I was trying to read his face, but it was as deadpan as a professional poker player’s. “I don’t...