President Obama takes the blame for the Dems big losses last Tuesday. In an interview on Face the Nation last Sunday he said, “We have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that we’re trying to do and why this is the right direction,” he said Sunday.”

Poetry by Sarahbeth Caplin. A collection of poems for every woman and any man who doesn't have a faint heart.

Sorting Myself is an excellent book of short poems. Sarahbeth Caplin looks candidly at questions that all of us ask which are often timeless in their no answer.

Her verse is mostly free form, but you glide along it effortlessly. You may not have walked in her many shoes, but you will be able to relate.

If you believe everything you read, you most likely believe that somewhere there is a Middle Earth, a Hogwarts, and a 100 Acre Woods where a bear is best friends with a pig. “What?” you say, that’s all fiction. Well, much of what we read comes from the imagination of the writer, no matter where we read it.

Many writers allude to listening to their muse. But what do you do when the muse goes silent? Just consider that she‘s still around somewhere, that she just has a case of laryngitis, and write on without her. Many times when you‘re beset by writer‘s block, your brick wall may be self-imposed.

I once went to a party with a friend. The snow had just started falling and it was the first time I had ever driven in snow. The party was at a house rented by several young men. One of them owned a female dog that was half Golden Lab and half German Shepherd. Another had a male dog that was half Doberman and half Greyhound. The two dogs got together and ended up with a family of 7 puppies. The boys managed to find a home for 6 of them, but there was one left over. When I sat on the floor, it came running up to me and laid down on my lap. The owner of the female dog said that he was going to have the pup “put down” tomorrow. She was the only one that he hadn’t placed in a home. I immediately decided to take her.