My son David has had a female Schnoodle dog named Lucy for about 4 years. A Schnoodle is hyper allergenic, i.e., has hair not fur and therefore doesn't cause one to sneeze, etc.  2 Summers ago David prevailed upon us to get one too and we did so. As many know, Charcoal is her name and as I have previously blogged, she converted me into a dog lover. During the Christmas-New Year holidays David and his wife Julie asked us to take care of Lucy.

I saw the headline in the Metro section of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal -- “The Politics of Apology: A Standoff”. On Tuesday, Victoria Drogin commented at the Long Island Women’s Group meeting that women tend to apologize, whereas men generally don’t. And I recall being instructed by a Senior partner at my first law firm never to apologize.

I remember growing up as a kid hearing everyone speak about the television set as if it was extended from the depths of hell from Satan himself.  It was destroying people's minds, it would be the end of family time, it was rotting out our BRAINS!    

  My family has an Ellis Island story and it goes like this. Our family name was Jablonsky. When my great grandfather came through Ellis Island, he wanted a nice American sounding name that had no ethnicity attached. The one that came to his mind was Levine – my maiden name.

I have written a few times about my office toys, which include a yo-yo, a baseball, a rubber ball, and a few other assorted diversions.   My partner has a little putting green but he must not like it because he keeps it in a box.  

It has been front page news since Wednesday and has France in a state of shock and fear. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen has said they directed the attack. That "branch" had two earlier failures, the underwear bombler plot and in 2010 tried to send bombs in packages to targets in the US.   What you may not know is that French authorities had both Kouachi brothers under close surveillance after returning fom Yemen where they were trained. However they reduced the surveillance once they believed the brothers led a normal life.  

We are addicted to two Showtime  shows. They are Homeland and The Affair. Both of which had their season finales just before Christmas. Homeland is our number one following its best season yet. The two episodes prior to the finale were explosive and captivating while the finale was a strong bridge to next season with Quinn as the endangered love interest for Carrie and Saul probably returning as the CIA Director.