I’ve been neurotic for a long time, at least since I was four, when my mother had to cut the feet off my pajamas because they were worn down to bits of thin, rubbery fabric hanging on by threads. I nearly lost my mind. It wasn’t so much an issue of fashion, but safety. A… [Read more…]
May 18, 2012
The flight to Mars should take about six months, but depending on how the planets are lined up, it could take seven or eight. When you consider how much planning will be involved, that’s a pretty cloudy estimate. It sounds a little like the response you get from a teenager who’s fleeing the house: “Where… [Read more…]
May 10, 2012
I want to be the first human to go to Mars. I say this not because I think I’m the most qualified, or because I even have anything to offer a space program that’s been hovering close to death since the shuttle missions of the early eighties. Rather, it seems that no one else really… [Read more…]
May 2, 2012
In 1981, I read a book by someone who was extremely well-known in some obscure field. I can no longer remember his well-known name, so there’s little chance the obscure field will spring to mind. But I do recall that at one point he offered this as his theory of life: “We’re all in constant… [Read more…]
April 24, 2012
I hate talking about the weather. And that’s a problem, because where I live, what’s happening in the atmosphere tends to form the basis for most conversation. The temperature, the lack of rainfall, the blueness of the sky, the level of frost in the ground — it’s incessant, and for me, somewhat bewildering. For one… [Read more…]
April 14, 2012
Predicting the future is a tricky business, and the results are usually less than impressive. Take, for example, all of those world’s fair exhibits that have attempted to portray life even just a couple of decades ahead. What we always get are flying cars, highways devoid of traffic jams, entire meals in a pill, and… [Read more…]
April 4, 2012
Easter approaches once again, and as usual, it arrives at the far edge of a forty-six day cloud of confusion. At least for me. Thinking back on it now, I’m not surprised that I found the entire season incomprehensible. I was baffled by far simpler things — carbon paper, reversible shirts, and those tiny cereal… [Read more…]
March 27, 2012
I bought two chocolate bars last week as part of a school fundraiser. The money was going to pay for band equipment, or hockey gear, or a new flagpole. I don’t really know. The important thing was that I could buy candy and feel good about myself at the same time. Even better, it was… [Read more…]
March 17, 2012
I have no real understanding of the human nervous system, this mass of interconnected cells that I use every second of every day. For example, it baffles me that I can start talking about something, especially in response to a question, without hesitation and with no idea of what’s going to come out of my… [Read more…]
March 7, 2012
I had a wisdom tooth extracted yesterday, although the word extracted is a little misleading. It had to be drilled and cut up, then pulled out in slivers — similar to how you might remove a cork that was stuck too far down the neck of a wine bottle, only with a lot more blood.… [Read more…]
May 27, 2012
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