Mary Beth Crain

1 week ago | shorelinemedia.net | Mary Beth Crain

In high schools all over the country, it’s prom time. In my day, which was somewhere between the dawn of civilization and four-wheel drive, prom was a huge deal. It was the year’s final judgement on your social status. Unless you were really popular, you nervously hoped and prayed that A) you’d have a date, and B) that date wouldn’t be the bottom of the barrel. If you were a guy, you had to work up enough nerve to ask your dream girl, praying with sweaty palms that she wouldn’t turn you down.

2 weeks ago | shorelinemedia.net | Mary Beth Crain

For some reason, I’m recalling an unsolicited e-mail I received a few years back. It was one of those sales pitches, the kind I usually dump without even bothering to read it. But this time, the subject caught my attention. The opening line read: “Is your toilet intelligent?”Oh, yeah. My toilet is so intelligent we have many conversations, about things deep and philosophical. I’ve learned so much from my toilet that I’d rather visit the bathroom than the library.

3 weeks ago | shorelinemedia.net | Mary Beth Crain

One of my favorite TV stations is TLC—The Learning Channel. Not because it’s educational in the PBS sense, but because it’s so downright bizarre. TLC specializes in oddities, anomalies and just plain super weird specimens of humanity. For instance, they love dwarfs and have had I don’t know how many series about little people. Little People, Big World, The Little Couple, Our Little Family, the Seven Little Johnstons, and Lord knows who else.

3 weeks ago | shorelinemedia.net | Mary Beth Crain

With the passing of Pope Francis, I thought it would be appropriate to share something I wrote 12 years ago, when he became the Supreme Pontiff. I think it best sums up what he will be remembered for: humility. A gentle, quiet quality to which we should all aspire, but which is far too easily drowned out by the roar of ego, the bellow of cruelty, the baying of avarice, and all the other noisy distractions the devil has devised to lure us from the simple task of loving others as God loves us.

1 month ago | shorelinemedia.net | Mary Beth Crain

I can’t believe it’s already April. The worst of Old Man Winter’s tantrums are over–well, except for probably one or two feeble attempts to dump a little more snow–and the balmy caresses of spring will soon liberate our hibernating souls. Thinking about April, I’m reminded that April 14 will be the 160th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death. I’ve always been fascinated by Lincoln, and I actually have in my possession an unusual book that I got at an antique store many years ago.