My version of the November Middle-Pause writing prompt — Marilyn Flower and Debbie Walker from Middle-Pause are challenging women who can rightly refer to themselves as “mature” to answer 10 questions about themselves. It’s a creative contest,… an explanatory exploration,… an interesting investigation … into ourselves. Or in my case, myself. I get to ask questions and answer them…

This is the basis for most of the world’s difficult problems — On a projection screen set up in my cultural anthropology class, I can see hunters traveling on foot, bare feet in fact, through dense forest. The men are tall, slim, and beautifully muscled. Each of them has a spear in his right hand. …

The way they just voted, you’d think so — The day before yesterday, the people of the Not-So-Great State of Mississippi voted to keep Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in office. Mississippi, the poorest state in the entire United States, has a poverty rate of 18.7 percent. Approximately one-fifth of the people in the state cannot afford fresh vegetables and…

Here’s how to get Amazon ‘verified customer reviews’ — for free! — Are you an author with an eBook on Amazon? Check right now and see how many reviews you have. I just checked on my own featured book on Medium, Ummie Tink.

The most important part of a conversation may be what happens before it begins — Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who just won’t listen to you? I have. Over and over. “Bob, should we go grocery shopping tomorrow or Monday?” [silence] “Bob? “What?” [annoyed, loud] “Should we go grocery shopping tomorrow or Monday? We’re out of eggs.” “What are you…

And how you can help them succeed — When I was 18 and just starting out on my own, I was expected to go to college, get married, have children, and maybe work part-time so my family could have some otherwise unaffordable luxuries. My grandchildren today are still expected to start out at least partly on their own…

It might be — It won’t happen immediately. We oldsters now on Social Security won’t wake up one morning anytime soon to find out that our bills got paid automatically while our Social Security checks, which should have been deposited automatically, weren’t. …

You know who he is — For the majority of us writing on Medium, English is our first language. In the third grade, we began learning about nouns and verbs and practiced putting periods at the ends of sentences. By the time we were in middle school, we were expected to be able to put nouns…

How to get no-cost “verified customer reviews” on Amazon — If you are a Medium author with a book on Amazon, you should know that the most important marketing for your book may be: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Yep, unless you’re a best-selling author published by a traditional publishing house with a marketing budget, your most effective marketing may be that five-star rating…