The Society of Professional Journalists’ LA chapter named me a (cough) Distinguished Journalist. To be fair, they’ve never met me in person. Anyway, my colleague Beau Yarbrough wrote a story about it, which you can read here. It’s nice.

The awards ceremony has been pre-recorded. We were each given two minutes maximum for an acceptance speech. I got to go first. After hearing everyone else’s speech, I thought, boy was mine dumb. Still, if you’d care to watch on Thursday night, you can RSVP here.

Back from vacation, I write about one specific aspect of my trip to San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland: namely, being asked for my vaccination card and ID at multiple businesses. I was fine with it, just to be clear; this was just a step ahead of Southern California, and a place the IE probably won’t go. It’s the topic of my Friday column.

Visiting all 30 Major League ballparks is a nice idea and a good way to see the country from stem to stern, but it would take more dedication and vacation time than most of us have. I’m at 11. I have friends who’ve been to 13 and 17. A Menifee man tells me he’s been to 27, and only to see the Dodgers — speaking of dedication. I write about all this in my Wednesday column.

Some readers have had easy airline experiences this year, others have had terrible ones and some are simply avoiding air travel. I write about their varied experiences, with some of my own, in Friday’s column.

I write about my two days in Milwaukee in Friday’s vacation-themed column.

I had a great vacation, but out of five flights, two were canceled. In the first case I got a later flight; in the second I took a train instead. Traveling post-COVID — full flights, full airports, masking — is the subject of my Wednesday column. Have you boarded a plane or two yet or are you holding off?

I saw baseball games in St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee over the course of six days. That’s a lotta national anthems! I write about our national pastime for my July Fourth column, my first in almost two weeks due to vacation.

After waking up Monday fully vaccinated, i.e., two weeks after my second dose, I had three items on my docket. They were modest but meaningful acts I’d saved for that day. I write about that in my Wednesday column. Did you do, or do you plan to do, anything comparable?

I got my second coronavirus vaccination Monday, excited to get it, but dreading the potential side effects. Well, they came, but they’re already fading. Have you had both shots yet? Any side effects you’d care to share? I write about the experience in Wednesday’s column — topped by a selfie.

I got my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday. If I could give it 5 stars on Yelp, I would. I write about my vaccination and offer words of both hope and caution in Wednesday’s column.