Author: Iris Ruth Pastor

The votes have been tallied. Harry won. I’m tired. Keep Preserving Your Bloom!

I’m back in the saddle again. As most of you know if you regularly read my column, my son Harry is running for re-election AGAIN. One would think after participating in so many campaigns and re-elections for him, I’d be immune to scathing literature hitting my mailbox and bouncing around the airwaves. It seems like Continue reading

I’m not sure when my passion for anything made from wicker started. There’s a blurry faded picture of me I found taken shortly after my birth in 1947. It shows me as a newborn, wrapped in a receiving blanket and placidly laying face up in a wicker bassinet like the one pictured below. These basket-shaped Continue reading

Why? Because I always felt like I was setting myself up for failure. No matter how resolute my good intentions were, by January 15 I was getting tired of any challenge I had set forth for myself and by February 1, I was firmly entrenched in and back to my bad habits. Now there is Continue reading

My son, Harry Cohen, is running for re-election to the Hillsborough County Commission.  I HAVE A CONFESSION: Until Harry stated running for office, I concentrated my attention on national and state elections – giving local elections little thought. EPIPHANY: · The local candidates we elect make decisions that touch our lives every day: zoning, growth, Continue reading

My dad died fourteen years ago at age eighty-eight – shortly after I qualified for Medicare. Even at my advanced age, his demise left me feeling rudderless. Some days I would think about him fleetingly or not at all. Some days, especially if I was in the throes of a situation, I would long for Continue reading

Question: What’s The BEST Gift You Can Give Your Adult Kids? Answer: A detailed plan for your future care and well-being if and/or when you should become unable to care for yourself due to physical debilitation or cognitive decline Sure, there is a plethora of information available online for what legal documents need to be in place. Continue reading

This Sunday evening Jewish people around the globe will begin to observe the holiday of Yom Kippur. As a Jewish broad who’s been around for 79 Yom Kippurs, I’m finding the older I get the more serious I take the essence of this solemn holiday. In junior high school, I repented about talking behind a friend’s back. Continue reading

The book Theo of Golden is all the rage. I planned to continue reading it on my London-bound flight. Seated early in the boarding process, I keenly observed the passengers boarding the plane – all who were rapidly passing my row. I spotted a woman carrying Theo Of Golden and immediately raised my hand – holding up my copy Continue reading

I’m betting that everyone, everywhere, at any time in history would be vastly interested in how to effortlessly prolong life. The quest for the secret to longer life can probably be documented as long ago as 4000 years. Gilgamesh – around 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia appeared in the Epic of Gilgamesh – as a hero who nevertheless Continue reading