A fire swept through a converted rowhouse in Philadelphia on Wednesday. A dozen people died, more than half of them children. It’s one of the worst residential fires in living memory, both in Philadelphia and across the United States. We don’t yet know exactly why or how, and with this fresh of a tragedy, that
The week between Christmas and New Year’s often seems like a gap in time, a moment when the world collectively holds its breath and takes a break. Many businesses are closed, or people out on vacation. If you are working, you’re often having to deal with more people than usual not working. Everything seems like
In our travels over the holidays and as weather continues to worsen, it’s likely that many of us will see at least one severe car accident. When we come across one, we may feel any combination of sadness and empathy for the folks involved, relief that it’s not us, annoyance at the delay, and an
It’s a lot of work to prepare yourself against all of the various threats that you can face; you have to consider your home, your bank account, your emotional safety, your physical security, and more. The world is a scary place, and there are so many ways life can go wrong. It can seem like
The media loves to turn shots fired into an active shooter situation, with all of the implications of that phrase evoking a crazed madman wandering about and firing guns randomly into a crowd. It’s more dramatic that way, and scarier for you as the reader. It makes you wonder if you or a loved one
Time is our most precious resource. It’s the only thing we can’t make more of. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, and we can’t go backwards to recover it, or go forward and make more of it. The best we can do is cut down how much time we spend on something, or trade off the
For my birthday this year, I’m giving you a free book! Well, I’m going to point you to the Kindle version, which the author is making free for download for five days starting today, and I’m personally going to give out some paper copies. Read on for details… Long-time followers will know that one of
How many of you carry some sort of self defense tool or weapon on a regular basis? How many of you ever want to go to places where those things aren’t allowed? Without getting into the politics in play, suffice it to say that there are many places where a visitor isn’t permitted by policy
There’s a safety tip that’s gone viral in the last few days. You might have seen it, the suggestion that if you get lost and have low to no cell phone signal or battery, you should change your outgoing voicemail message to the time and date, your location, and the troublesome situation you’re in. The
I’m thinking today about the trappings of authority, and what our proper response should be when we are faced with them. We are raised, of course, to respect our elders, our betters, the people who have some greater skill or knowledge than us, or some kind of moral or actual power over us – people
