The Tears of the Clown

It’s hard to think that the person laughing the loudest may be masking the sound of his teardrops. But that’s what I thought when the news broke about the tragic death-by-suicide of the talented comedian and actor Robin Williams. Reports say he was battling depression and had dealt with substance abuse for years. The man with a hundred funny faces and boundless kinetic energy on the stage of life could no longer face his audience of demons. Why it is that so many genuinely funny and talented entertainers who made us laugh out loud for all the right reasons leave

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The State of Happiness

A report by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Research recently named the “happiest cities” in our nation. The state of Louisiana won the jackpot on joy with four happiest places out of 10:  Lafayette (#3), Baton Rouge (#5), Shreveport (#7) and Houma (#8).  Other states high on happiness, depending on which of the lists you read, include: Virginia (Charlottesville and Richmond) and Texas (Houston and Corpus Christi). My own back yard, New York City, was lowest on the totem pole of the happy poll. It seems the “city that never sleeps” and the “crossroads of the world” has a lot

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