I have no way of knowing how people really feel but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer. Every once in a while someone barks at me. My New Year's resolution is not to bark back.

While tributes to Americans who had lost their lives in battle had been held in a number of towns across the nation one of the more well-known stories about the beginnings of Memorial Day is the story about General John Logan.

While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died not just those fallen in service to our country.

I'm well-travelled so I can see places coming up. I went to St. Croix in the West Indies at Christmas and it had been hit by a really bad tornado. Values there have gone down but I guarantee they will be up again in eight years. So I'll get in now while it's cheap as chips.

It is never too late to get into tennis! While I started playing at the age of 8 when my parents gave me a tennis racquet for Christmas tennis is a lifelong sport that can be enjoyed by people of almost any age. It's also something you never forget once you learn.

My mother died of metastatic colorectal cancer shortly before three P.M. on Christmas Day of 2008. I don't know the exact time of her death because none of us thought to look at a clock for a while after she stopped breathing.

Now I'm an old Christmas tree the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions.

Work while you work play while you play - this is a basic rule of repressive self-discipline.

The companies that make meaningful contributions while also listening to the voices of others are the ones that will genuinely engage their community who will then go to work for them.

I was looking for a husband but meanwhile to survive I had to work.

It's not about how much movement you do how much interaction there is it just reeks of credibility if it's real. If it's contrived it seems to work for a while for the people who can't filter out the real and unreal.

We spend billions of pounds on welfare yet millions are trapped on welfare. It's not worth their while going into work.

We are free but not to be evil not to be indifferent to human suffering not to profit from the people from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from.

And where I excel is ridiculous sickening work ethic. You know while the other guy's sleeping? I'm working.

As a kid I was always mad - just noticing the women at Thanksgiving running around the kitchen while the men were watching football. For one I don't want to cook and for two I hate football. I was stuck in the middle.

Can I just say here how much I hate the word 'pamper'? While pretending to celebrate and indulge women it actually implies that their bodies are so revolting that even their 'me time' must be dedicated to turning them into living dolls if potential suitors are to be prevented from running screaming in horror.

While gossip among women is universally ridiculed as low and trivial gossip among men especially if it is about women is called theory or idea or fact.

I've been trying to find women writers for my staff for a while now and I have three women on my staff and three guys so it's pretty equal. I don't know why that is. It's been the same thing for a while. It's hard for female comedians to stand out. That's weird. That's a shame.

What's different now is that while political leaders used to give talking points to talk radio now talk-radio hosts are giving talking points to political leaders. It's all part of the suffocating spin cycle we're in. In media politics and publishing the conventional wisdom is to play to this base.

Now it is time to turn to an older wisdom that while respecting material comfort and security as a basic right of all also recognises that many of the most valuable things in life cannot be measured.

No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers alas have to be fools in public while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.

If we have built on the fragile cornerstones of human wisdom pride and conditional love things may look good for a while but a weak foundation causes collapse when storms hit.

You may invite the entire 35th Division to your wedding if you want to. I guess it's going to be yours as well as mine. We might as well have the church full while we are at it.

After the atomic bombs were dropped the war ended and we went into Tokyo Bay with the rest of the fleet the Missouri and the rest of them while they signed the terms of surrender that ended the war.