Welcome to Planet Terry

It’s times like this when my sporadic sense of guilt kicks in and my father’s voice comes to me saying, “You are not going to watch cartoons all Saturday are you? Don’t tell me you have homework to do, it’s July. Get out here and get to work.” The next thing you’d know I’d be knee-deep [literally]

Despite my vocal concerns, including the dangers of inciting class warfare, I was assigned to take the three younger children to see that orange eco-socialistic Lorax.

Around 4:00PM or whenever he is let into the house, Claus starts his daily complaints and demands to be fed his wet food. He has always had plenty of dry food available, but by some nefarious means he managed to intimidate his cat-sitter into giving him wet food every day. The cat sitter then intim

Besides our need for instant gratification, some of the other common reasons for our lack of savings are (1) our insistence on maintaining our current standard of living, (2) our wish to keep with our peers, (3) our inability to manage credit card debt, and (4) our talent for avoiding the tr

Fairy tales have historically been part of all cultures, and despite occasional concerns about their appropriateness for children, parents have used them, not only to entertain, but also to teach important life lessons. Devoid of nuance, fairy tales cut to the essence of human experiences, especiall

Tapas restaurant are another mystery to me. It seems that if a menu item is called a “ Tapa”, somehow it’s okay to charge a lot for a relatively small portion. I think “Tapas” must be Spanish for “expensive leftovers”. Of course, after drinking a pitcher of Sangria, you don’t really mind

Backyard Brush Pile Depleted, Homeless Snakes Despondent: After months of diligent effort, the pile of yard trash, brush, and branches, I foolishly placed near the house, receded. The pile had become a habitat for a variety of terrifying creatures, including a large snake that we discovered sunning

The size of a pill is also related to its placebo value. As you might expect, if a little is good, a lot is great. When they feel bad, most people want the maximum strength possible. As comedian Jerry Seinfeld said, “We want them to figure what dose can kill us and then back off just

In high school my highly sensitive football coach did not appreciate me missing a practice to go on the annual band trip. I believe he said something like, “Waddaya want us to do next Stawar, stop the blankety blank football game, so you can prance out on the field and toot your little horn.”

Even better, however, are the suave pipe-smoking grandfathers dressed in tweeds in movies like Disney’s The Parent Trap. At one point in the original version the granddaughter says “Grandfathers smell like tobacco and mints”. I have to admit that would be an improvement over most grandfather’s I