The Mason Minute

Do you ever read reviews for movies, TV shows, books, or music? In the past, we used to pay attention to what the reviewers had to say. Nobody went to the movies without hearing what Siskel and Ebert thought. We had to know whether a film received a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Anyone who loved rock music always had to check out the reviews in Rolling Stone. People even wanted to know what their loca...

This summer has been a hot one. August is usually our warmest month, with temperatures in the 90s nearly every day. We're already seeing that, and it's only mid-July. And what's interesting is that, along with the heat we're experiencing, we're getting pop-up showers almost every day. They're like the heat showers that my parents get down on the Gulf Coast of Florida on summer afternoons. It doesn...

Any good Midwesterner knows that this is just the beginning of the corn on the cob season here in the US. While you can get corn in June or July, it’s really not best until August and September. That’s when the sweet corn is at its peak and its lowest price. But that hasn’t stopped two restaurant chains from featuring summer dishes with little corn cobettes. Is this just a coincidence, or do we ha...

Product recalls have become a fact of life. Not a day goes by when another product gets recalled. I vaguely remember hearing about them in the early 1970s. However, upon reviewing their history, the first major recall was by Cadillac in 1958. To this day, recalls in the automobile sector happen frequently. Just the other day, Ford announced a recall of 850,000 vehicles for defective fuel pumps. An...

Back in my younger days, I remember TV shows like ABC's Wide World of Sports. There, they showed you all sorts of obscure sports and things like the Harlem Globetrotters basketball. Bowling was also a popular sport on television years ago. But many argued whether bowling was a sport. Baseball, football, basketball, you can take one look at the people playing and know that they're athletes. The oth...

I was sitting around the house last night with nothing to do, and often, when that happens, my mind begins to wander. I was watching television and saw a commercial for the new Superman movie. And I thought to myself, why do we have so many remakes and reboots these days? So much of the media we consume is just an updated version of something we’ve seen before. I realize it’s easier to force-feed...

In my younger days, I was obsessed with sports. While I followed most sports, basketball, and baseball consumed my life. But somewhere in my early teens, sports started to matter a bit less. At that point, music became my passion. I didn't have any ability to play an instrument or sing, but with a radio studio always around, I was able to immerse myself in all types of music. It was only logical t...

I admire people who can keep an even keel, day in and day out. Throughout my life, I’ve been accused of being moody. And I am. My moods are very much driven by how my body feels. In my younger days, sinus headaches, stress headaches, and migraines ruled my moods. I do my best to manage my moods these days. However, sometimes the body prevails. Fortunately, I’m not the moodiest one in our house. An...

Air travelers got a pleasant surprise yesterday. The Office of Homeland Security announced that we would no longer be required to take our shoes off when boarding an airplane. While this was a slight hassle, over the last 20 years, we had grown accustomed to it. Now, thanks to the introduction of the Real ID, the need to remove our shoes magically disappeared. We all know that air travel changed a...

What's that old saying: two's company and three's a crowd? I suppose that's the way you could view American politics and our two-party system. The Democrats and Republicans have done all they can to minimize any other parties coming to predominance. As you know, it wasn't always Democrats and Republicans. Initially, there were the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Plus, later, we had the...

Recently, we discussed how to maintain a happy relationship with your spouse. Today, we're exploring relationships and how they're portrayed on social media. One thing I've noticed is how some people constantly remind us how great their relationship is and how much they love one another. And while that may be true, new research suggests that most happy couples are essentially deceiving themselves....

For decades, whenever people discussed their favorite baseball team, the answers were similar. And which one is America's team? It may be the Yankees, the Braves, the Dodgers, or the Cubs. But this year, when the question gets asked, The answer to the question could be a surprise. This year, the answer would likely be the Savannah Bananas. Everyone is going bananas for this exhibition baseball tea...

The classic movie Back to the Future is celebrating a significant anniversary. The Michael J. Fox blockbuster just celebrated the fortieth anniversary of its release. It's hard to believe that the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown have been a part of our lives for so long. There has been extensive social media coverage, along with numerous memes that I have lost count of. There was one that...

Don't worry, everything's fine. I was scrolling through my newsfeed yesterday and read a story about emergency room coverage. Experts say that the 4th of July is, on average, the busiest night in the ER each year. Actually, the 4th and the 5th are typically most active thanks to injuries sustained from fireworks. Two other busier-than-normal times in the hospital are December 31st and January 1st....

Food trends come and go. Some last just a short time, and some never go away. Tapas parties were once a trend. It didn't last long. Fondue was a popular trend, but it cooled. It never went away but became niche. One trend that appears to be lasting and evolving is the popularity of hot and spicy foods. Cajun hot sauces and Nashville Hot Chicken are both part of the trend, and their popularity fluc...

Are you cool? I don't mean temperature-wise; I'm talking about your aesthetic. If you are, a wide range of people have to agree. I'm not embarrassed that I've always wondered about myself. I've always known the answer, but a boy or man can dream. A recent worldwide study has identified six traits that people who are perceived as cool across cultures share. The fascinating part of this research is...

Even though people have often told me otherwise, I've never thought my voice was anything special. Through the years, I've known hundreds, if not thousands, of people with better ones. And with all my years talking on the radio, you'd think those muscles would be stronger than most. And perhaps they are, but then why does the voice always go out whenever I catch a cold or get the flu? Maybe it's b...

I had a rough weekend. This cold is tearing me apart. I’m physically exhausted. I don’t know why this cold is affecting me more severely than most, but I have lost my appetite. And for me, that says a lot. My sleep schedule is all out of sync, and my body wants to sleep in the evening, not in the overnight hours. When I take a shower, I need time to rest because all of the hot water drains me. My...

There's no question that times were much simpler in my youth. Toys were much simpler. Anything that might be considered high-tech required six D-sized batteries to operate. I'm sure technology plays a significant role in our loss of this simplicity. I used to love playing with Silly Putty. Even though its origins are technology-based, as a failed rubber substitute, it was a simple toy. Outside of...

I've never been a person who takes many sick days. I could count the number of times I called off work on one hand. I should have taken the day off yesterday. This Summer cold has got the best of me. I don't have much energy. While I worked from home yesterday like I often do on Fridays. I would have been better off taking the day off. But I had a lot of work to do, so I plowed through. When I fin...

We're not even a week into Summer, and I already have a Summer cold. I didn't stand a chance. My wife started catching something over the weekend. We both have severe allergies, so at first, she wasn't sure if it was just allergies or something more. For her, it's a chest cold. It's not bad, just annoying. I started feeling it yesterday. Mine is in my throat. Just like my wife, I initially hoped i...

Anyone married for more than a few years can tell you that you need to work on it daily. We all want a happy marriage, but it's easy to fall into a rut as the years fly by. Respect, honesty, and communication are some of the keys to making it work. But there may be a shortcut to ensure a couple's happiness. European researchers have studied hundreds of couples to learn the keys to a successful uni...

I've talked about this subject before. A group called People's Union USA is organizing another economic blackout. This time, they're targeting McDonald's. In the past, they've gone after other major companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. They feel that corporate greed is causing many of the issues in our country. Allowing these companies to grow so large is a serious problem. While they get a...

Officially, Summer has just begun. But if you look at the thermometer, you'd think it was the middle of August. Most of the U.S., east of the Mississippi River, is under a heat advisory for the next few days. That doesn't often happen this early in the season. Sure, it gets hot in some spots, but there's one way that many have been categorizing this weather. Everyone keeps calling this oppressive...

We're all guilty of having a bad habit or two—some worse than others. I've picked up a new nightly habit, and while it's not too severe, I find it causing me to stay up a little later than I should. Putting together The Mason Minute is one of the last things I do each night before I head to bed. One of the last things I do for the podcast is schedule the video version I post to YouTube. And while...