Dick Wolfsie

Every year about this time I look back at the previous 12 months and express appreciation for the people, places and things that have made their way into my weekly columns.  So, thanks to: My old roommate from college who called me after 55 years. He reminded me we hadn’t spoken in 55 years. I…

Over the past 20 years, I have written many humor columns about the holiday season. This is my favorite one, because not only is it based on something that really happened, but it’s pretty much exactly what happened. In December of 2016, a UPS truck pulled up to our curb and, as always, we were…

This kind of thing could only happen to me. (In a way, that’s good, because if things like this happened to you, you’d have your own humor column.) The other day as I got into my car and pressed the button to start the engine, my dependable sedan fired up as usual. But wait: my…

The Hammacher Schlemmer Christmas ’22 gift catalog just arrived! It’s the longest-running mail-order retailer of its kind, its pages filled with unique (if not quirky) selections. Here are some of my favorite choices. Who knows, maybe this holiday you will receive… John Wayne’s Canvas Rancher Jacket: This hand-crafted canvas jacket features a notched corduroy collar.…

I had my hearing tested recently and this week I got my new hearing aids. My wife has been bugging me to do this for a long time. I heard her, but I wasn’t really listening. Hearing loss runs in my family. My grandmother was born nearly deaf. When she finally got hearing aids in…

In last week’s column, I speculated on what personal recollections my wife might share during the “chat” portion of the show “Jeopardy!” if she were a contestant. All of Mary Ellen’s responses were totally true stories. This week, I cover what I would say if I were accepted to be one of the three challengers.…

Mary Ellen and I watch “Jeopardy,” and the other evening we discussed how Ken Jennings chats with the contestants, giving each one an open-ended question to prompt a funny or interesting personal story. Mary Ellen feared that if she ever got on the show, she’d have trouble coming up with five entertaining anecdotes, assuming she…

Mary Ellen and I promised each other that during our recent vacation we would not check our emails. At dinner each night, we conversed and learned a great deal about each other, things that have happened to each of us since we got our first cell phones in 1990. When we returned home, we eagerly…

I’m not a fan of bus tours. I either fall asleep in the middle of the guide’s presentation, forget everything I heard, or am suspicious of the accuracy of the information presented. They could be making it all up. A guide in Savannah, Georgia, informed us while touring an old plantation that house slaves were…

We had just landed at the L.A. International Airport, excited about our vacation.  As we walked through the terminal I saw a man—I think it was a man—head slumped over, legs draped over his carry-on bag. Normally I wouldn’t have given him another thought. Goodness knows, I have always boasted of my own daytime slumbering…