Harley A. Rotbart's Blog

When I was younger, I was okay with most loud noises, at least for short periods of time. I didn’t love or crave noise, but I accepted it for what came with it. I happily endured the roar of a packed stadium at a major sporting event – and I even contributed to with my own cheers and jeers. I went to occasional concerts, even rock concerts, but tried to sit back far enough from the monster speakers to spare my ears and brain

But as I got older my ears and brain, or maybe just my patience, starte...

I vividly remember the first time a colleague asked for my email address – I didn’t have one yet, and I wasn’t alone. Email was new, and with it came a host of new issues. Was an email note an okay substitute for a handwritten letter? Or a phone call?  When our phones gave us Siri, we wondered if we should say “please and “thank you” to “her.”  Those questions have been answered by the passage of time – we couldn’t exist without email or Siri. So today’s technology  questions are all about the n...

TYFRT (Thank You For Reading This)

My 80-ish-year-old friend Marv recently received a text from his granddaughter that ended with four little letters: “TY, LU.” Marv, puzzled, stared at his phone for a while, wondering if he had missed something obvious. He recognized “LU” as “Love You” from previous texts with her, but “TY?” So, Marv Googled it. Of course all of you cool folks like me (JK – Just Kidding!) know that “TY” means “Thank You.” Marv thought it probably took him longer to figure out w...

As I was taking my low dose, heart-protective (hopefully), aspirin dose last night, I had a flashback and remembered when today’s “low dose aspirin regimen” was called something else – “baby aspirin!!”.

There are many markers for how old a person is. One of them is remembering when we used to treat babies with St. Joseph’s Children’s Aspirin—those little, sweet, orange pills that seemed almost like candy. We thought we were doing something healthy, something protective. I even have a faint memor...

It’s always a letdown when the World Series ends, because it means we have to wait many long, cold months before the “boys of spring” return to the diamond. For those like me who were glued to the screen for this year’s amazingly exciting Series, I wonder how many appreciated the many teaching moments the games provided for kids. I have spent a career finding teaching moments in every aspect of a child’s life, especially in baseball, but in case you were too busy enjoying the games to think abou...

It’s just another sign of aging, I guess, but among all the other mysteries of modernity I can’t solve, now I can’t figure out how to work my thermostat. I never had a problem with our old thermostat – flip a toggle to “heat,” push the up arrow or the down arrow and hear that comforting click, the sound of the furnace kicking on, followed by the gush of warmth coming from the vents. Worked just fine for the past 17 years. But then the furnace’s “inducer motor” “seized,” a very bad thing to happ...

Pete Rose died last week. Pete was one of my heroes and I mourn baseball’s loss, and my personal loss. As you probably have gathered from my other posts and writings, I’m a baseball fanatic and somewhat knowledgeable about the game I love. And as such, I feel comfortable asserting that no other player in modern times so dominated baseball and, at the risk of hyperbole, I might asset that no other player ever so dominated any sport. Pete’s unprecedented number of base hits, games played, at-bats,...

We’ve recently traveled a bit by cruise ship, another concession to waning vim and vigor, and to sore knees and hips. Cruise ships are like aquariums of aging, complete with a clear blue water setting. Every variety of aging human fauna is on full display floating in these generously windowed hostels. Like aquariums, cruise ships have activity toys for their occupants, brightly colored décor, and timely feeding schedules. While we’re still quite mobile, some of the others among our fellow travel...

Last week I ran into a former colleague with whom I worked for more than 30 years. I hadn’t seen him in more than 10 years. He looked awful. Gray straggly beard, unkempt hair, too thin. His gait was unsteady and his handshake weak. I was worried for him.

“Hi Ted, great to see you! How have you been?” I said. And it was great to see  him, I always liked Ted.

“Okay, I guess,” he said, “considering.”

“That sounds ominous, anything in particular?”

“Not really, just feeling old. But you look great!” ...

HAPPY JULY 4!

THESE ARE YOUR KIDS’ INDEPENDENCE DAYS

As we celebrate July 4, our nation’s Independence Day, this is a good time to reflect on a different kind of “independence day.” Each day of a child’s life brings new growth and development, sometimes subtle, other times momentous. Among the many “firsts” in our kids’ lives are 4 milestones that launch kids from one stage of their young lives to the next, bringing them ever closer to their own independence. These are milestones for parents as ...