Long Beach
The other day, someone asked me how I decide what to write about every week in this column.
Fair question, since I’ve been writing A Pinch for 30 years. That equals 1,560 columns, minus the odd week here or there when I let someone else write in this space.
Most of the time, the topic presents itself, with no way for me to disagree. It might be something in the news that I think you might be interested in hearing my view. Or it is an event in my life I’d like to share, believing a column might shed a little light on issues we share — or I need to get off my chest.
Those weeks, I sit down and the words flow.
Then there are weeks like this one.
It’s not that there is nothing to write about. On the contrary, there is too much to share.
I could write about the Super Bowl, on its way to town in just 10 days. I could tie it to the time in 1998 when my Denver Broncos were in the Super Bowl in San Diego and I finagled press credentials to the events the day before the game. To be clear, I didn’t get to attend the game itself, when John Elway and the Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers.
But it’s more than a little tough explaining why I’m a Broncos fan these days.
Or I could write about getting COVID-19 tests in the mail on Tuesday. I’m vaxed and boosted and feel fine, but the government wanted to send them to me, so I said okay.
But I’m just plain tired of writing about COVID.
I could talk about the car wreck (accident, collision) last week that crunched my paid-off 2014 Camry. I certainly am blessed that I walked away without injury thanks both to God and the marvels of safety features in modern cars — something to write about.
Or I could take the angle of dealing with insurance companies when the accident wasn’t your fault. Or the stone-cold fact that putting new tires on a car is just asking for a car life-ending accident.
Or I could write about the increasingly important search for a canine companion for our dog Khloe after the passing last month of Tiger.
COVID-19 has totally screwed up the process of trying to adopt a dog; I’ve always visited the animal shelter, looked at a bunch of dogs, then let Maria pick the one we’d take home. These days, you have to look at dogs online, pick one, fill out an application, then wait for someone to get back to you to: 1. decide if you’re a good enough person to be allowed to adopt a pet and 2. set up an appointment to see if the dog likes you.
We have two appointments this week. Wish us luck.
Or I could write about how hard it is to find a gift for a wife whose birthday is just a week before Valentine’s Day. I abdicated responsibilities this year, asking her to pick her own gift. Good thing I did — she really, really didn’t like the one I had picked out.
Or I could write about Valentine’s Day itself. I could tell you about the years we (the Grunion) organized Valentine’s Date Night, a fundraiser that garnered thousands of dollars for heart programs at the city’s hospitals. Or I could complain about how it is a made-up commercial scam (a little strong, I know).
Speaking of hospitals, I could detail the saga of Community Hospital. But the 700 or so words available in this column would only scratch the surface.
Then there’s the Queen Mary. Enough said.
Well, looky there. We’ve got a whole column’s worth of words. Did any of those topics peak your interest?
Let me know. I get to write another column next week.
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2022-02-03 14:01:15Z
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