Have always talked to strangers. This nearly kept me from graduating kindergarten. Mrs. Goldstein thought imparting the whole of my five-year conversational repertoire –age (5), favorite school subject (recess), favorite lunch (chicken nuggets) etc. — was “unsafe” to share with the trenchcoated adults lingering around the playground. Try as she could, “Stranger danger” just never quite took. 

But HARK! Now there is Internet! Here I can, nay, am encouraged to!, inflict my inane chatter on strangers and friends alike! Joy! Besides, Mrs. Goldstein was wrong. In my journeys to date, from Peace Corps Ukraine to military reporting in Iraq, from Mainstee fishing on Lake Michigan to a first attempt at a rock ledge in Cody, Wyo, people, strangers and friends alike, have always made the experience worth having. So, friends and strangers, please add your insight to my personal blathering. I currently live in Sicily and spent the last seven years as a daily newspaper reporter.