Tom Purcell stories, Page 7

The cost of construction materials has gone through the roof — if you can still afford a roof, which isn’t very affordable right now. All I wanted to do was build a modest roof over my modest deck at my modest house. But a year of government pandemic policies and...

Fewer Americans are attending traditional church services. Fewer are attending Catholic schools, too. According to Gallup, the number of Americans who belong to a church, synagogue or mosque continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. And thanks to the covid pandemic,...

You can’t escape politics anywhere now — not even in America’s once great pastime, baseball. A “pastime,” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably.” Boy, did the Pittsburgh Pirates accomplish that for me most of my early life. Pirates radio broadcasts...

Springtime has arrived in Washington, D.C. The National Cherry Blossom festival is underway. Some 3,700 cherry trees, given to America by the Japanese in 1912, soon will be in full bloom. I lived in the D.C. area for nearly eight years and always looked forward to this time of year....

When I grew up in the 1970s, my father taught my sisters and me to “always save for a rainy day.” He was a child of the Depression, after all, one of the longest “rainy day” periods Americans have ever experienced. In 2021, however, America’s new national mantra appears to...

I miss my Uncle Mike — especially on St. Patrick’s Day. He would have been 90 this year. He died far too young from leukemia in 1990 when he was only 59. His mother immigrated to Syracuse, N.Y., from Ireland. His father’s parents had been Irish immigrants, too. He was...

Is the world finally coming to grips with the wrongs I endured as a child growing up in the 1970s? I came of age before 24-hour cable news channels sensationalized childhood abductions and made every parent in America terrified their kid was likely to become the next victim. We ’70s...

Get this: A study by McGill University has found that more money does not necessarily make people in low-income countries happier. I like more money as much as the next guy, but that does not surprise me. Sara Miñarro, the lead author, says in Futurity.org that the people interviewed reported...

Coffee. I need coffee. And sleep. And food. I picked up my Lab puppy, Thurber, four days ago. I have spent every waking moment since happily tending to the little guy’s considerable needs. Before I got him, I was cocksure I’d mastered the proper training techniques to bend my little...

It’s February. It’s cold. To fend off the winter blahs, I dream of one day retiring to a warm beach, where I’ll stand in the surf, sipping beverages from glasses with little umbrellas in them. I spend hours using the Social Security Benefits Calculator to determine how much Social Security...

I love winter. I love snow. I love making a roaring fire in my fireplace on a chilly day. But I hate one thing about this time of year: taxes. February is rough for the self-employed. It’s rough because my 1099 forms — official records of how much my clients...

Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat and D.C.’s delegate in the U.S. House, is on to something big! A longtime champion of, and leader on, civil rights and free speech issues, she has a clear mastery of common sense. You see, the west side of the U.S. Capitol grounds has long...

The country is divided, in massive debt, and our future isn’t looking so good — but thankfully, I have more immediate worries to consume my energies. Girl Scout cookies are back. I’m on a diet, you see — the same diet I’m on every year at this time as I...

America could use a hearty laugh right now, but laughter doesn’t come easily because too many Americans have lost their sense of humor. Humor, says Merriam- Webster, is “the ability to be funny or to be amused by things that are funny.” We are at our best when we’re amused. Few...

Without grace, our public discourse will continue to suffer. “Grace,” according to Dictionary.com, has more than one meaning, but all of them are powerful. Grace is “a pleasing or attractive quality,” as well as “favor or goodwill.” In a religious sense, grace is “a virtue or excellence of divine origin”...

My new puppy entered the world on Christmas, and he’s already bringing incredible joy into my family — just as many dogs, cats and other bundles of joy are doing for millions during these unusual times. I drove to Punxsutawney over the weekend to choose a Labrador puppy. Sunny, the...

We got blanketed with 10 inches of snow last week and I loved it — because I love how snow slows us down and brings us to our senses. When it snows in Pittsburgh, people pour out into the streets. We shovel our sidewalks and driveways, invigorated by the crisp...

The way my siblings and I responded to my family’s chicken-pox outbreak in 1973 might shed light on Americans’ responses to covid-19 in 2020. I was about 10 and remember how differently my five sisters responded to that highly contagious bug. To prevent its spread, our family doctor ordered us...

Sorry, covid-19, but you’re not going to stop our Christmas cheer this year. You remind me of the Dr. Seuss Christmas classic, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The Grinch, you see, is a miserable old grouch. He lives in a cave on a hill and hates the sound of Christmas...

Good grief. It surprised me how sad I was that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” no longer would air on broadcast television. I felt like I’d lost a chunk of my childhood. In October, Apple TV+ acquired the rights to all “Peanuts” holiday specials including “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” A great...

My family canceled Thanksgiving this year — my favorite holiday since I was a kid. Usually, 30 to 40 people gather at my parents’ house and sit next to each other at three tables. But in this year of covid-19 — aptly named, because I and everyone I know has...

As challenging a year as 2020 has been, we still should be thankful that it has been the best year in human history to be alive. Consider: In 1920, according to the book “Enlightenment Now,” the average person spent 11.5 hours each week doing laundry. By 2014, he or she...

“It’s a miracle!” said the doctor. “You’ve just awakened from a coma after a terrible accident in October 2016, but you’re doing well, all things considered!” “I’ve been out for more than four years?” said the patient. “That’s right,” said the doctor. “You must have several questions.” “You bet, Doc!...

It’s calm as I write this, the day before the 2020 general election. I hope and pray that the outcome, whatever it may be, is accepted calmly — though I worry it may not be. Americans’ growing divisiveness is concerning, but there’s one element of this election that’s worth celebrating:...

Halloween is a huge letdown this year. I love modern Halloween traditions. I love the sweet smell of autumn, the chilly air and the camaraderie of friends around a roaring campfire. I love hayrides, Honeycrisp apples and the clever, hilarious costumes my left-brained accountant and engineer friends come up with....