Business Casual

The most dramatic and immediate effect on the nest that emptied when our daughter went off to college a few years ago was the quiet. Everything stopped.

There's a lot to find puzzling in the ongoing controversy in Cobb County over the evolution disclaimer stickers that a federal judge has declared unconstitutional - in violation of both the Georgia and the U.S. Constitutions.

The internal click that comes when I push open the back door and walk into the house after a few hours or a few days away takes me by surprise every time, even though I've heard it in the half-dozen or so places I've called home throughout my adult life.

How many times have you wanted to suggest to top corporate folks that they should occasionally try calling their own places of business, unannounced, just like any regular customer?

The nearly 250,000 students who attend Georgia's public colleges and universities dodged a powerful bullet a few weeks ago when the Board of Regents wisely decided not to push for a mid-year tuition hike as a way of dealing with a $65-million budget shortfall.

The first voice-mail message of the morning was from a woman I've never met who delivered a lengthy tirade against journalism and journalists, including the fact that she has "long felt that journalists will print whatever they want to print . . . and they don't particularly care whether the story is accurate."

Just about the time you think you're safe, here it comes to beat you over the head one more time.

The birthday we were celebrating was not a landmark "0" year, just one of those in-betweens you pretty much take in stride. One woman brought photos from her son's wedding the previous month.

Blossom has a new home, but the six baby ducks who used to swim in the pond behind our office building are MIA.

Boston has a lot going for it: 400-plus years of history; a comprehensive and well-funded public transit system; a vibrant downtown; an all-but-completed $14-billion-plus construction project called the Big Dig; and a whole neighborhood full of great Italian restaurants.