Two freebie books I picked up were totally timely. Stress Can Really Get on Your Nerves by Trevor Romain and Elizabeth Verdick, a Scholastic book from 2000, made me hope that it will be reprinted and promoted as I could think of a million school students who would benefit from its suggestions to slow down, take deep breaths and consider options. The other was Divine Appointments by Charlene Ann Baumbich (1972). I have yet to master the writing technique of making something worse happen right after something awful. Baumbich held my interest in a  Chicago-based story of a group of office workers coping with downsizing, that kept getting more complicated. Not judging people by their clothes or status at work was a satisfying theme, as was Baumbich’s take on not rushing into relationships.

Growing up, my nuclear family did nothing outrageous for St. Patrick’s Day, but I will mention that my late brother, David F. O’Keefe, was one of the honorees at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Houston, this week. That made me smile. So did today’s Rochester Democrat and Chronicle for the item about an Irish dignitary, accompanied by the head of the Frederick  Douglass Family Initiative, placing a wreath on Frederick Douglass’s gravestone in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester earlier this month. I don’t usually link Douglass with St. Patrick’s Day, but he expanded his view of human rights during his travels in Ireland in the 1840s.

Thank you to AARP magazine, February/March issue for the lively article on Lily Tomlin, Jane, Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Morena. What great models of accomplishment! And, as always I checked out the back page Big5-Oh to keep up with the milestone honorees. Always good.

blog post. https://rokeefehistory.com/blog #amreading; #StressCanReallyGetonYourNerves; #Trevor Romain; #ElizabethVerdick; #DivineAppointments; #CharleneABaumbich; #St.PatricksDay; #Ireland; #FrederickDouglass; #MountHopeCemetery; FDFI; #humanrights;