I resisted the lure of the blogging world for a long time, dismissing it as a passing fad or a fuzzy and lazy form of publishing. It was, I believed, a shortcut to something too indistinct to ever mean anything. I didn’t get it. I think I get it now. Four and a half years […]
September 29, 2014
“The debate is over.” Al Gore said that about man-made climate change. A lot of other people have said it, too. But it isn’t true. If the debate were over, then no one would be debating it anymore. There was a time when it was widely believed that there were canals on Mars and bathing was […]
September 21, 2014
In my lifetime, we have been scared out of our minds by an assortment of impending disasters: nuclear war, asteroids, asbestos, fire ants, locusts, killer bees, rogue planets, Lyme Disease, Mad Cow Disease, SARS, swine flu, bird flu, Satanic cults, holes in the ozone, the Bermuda Triangle, alien abductions, the Y2K bug, and – every […]
September 3, 2014
I watch a lot of movies. There was a time when I thought I’d be in movies, but I’m past that now, just as I’m pretty sure I’m never going to walk on the Moon or play centerfield for the Yankees. Acting looks like fun, and pays well, too, but then I found out that […]
August 24, 2014
It was the summer of 1985. Jill and I were taking the first steps into our thirties, and while our goals were still ambitious, they were no longer earthshaking. The dream of changing the world had begun to fade, and we had started to focus on the smaller world right around us. We wanted what […]
August 9, 2014
“You’re just too cool.” That’s what she said. In fact, those were her exact words, which proves one thing: she’s never met me. No one has ever described me as cool, or any heat level, for that matter. If there were a television show called World’s Least Cool Human Being, I would be the permanent […]
August 1, 2014
Here’s a thing I’ve noticed. It has to do with accents, but the theory can be applied to a lot of other things, as well: The farther away we are from a place, the more everything seems to look and sound the same. I’ll give you an example, because so far you have no idea what […]
July 24, 2014
Whenever I learn something brand new – when I read a book, watch a documentary, or go on a guided tour – I eventually find myself bothered by a nagging question about the subject. It’s never the same question, but it’s usually one that undermines the entire presentation. And I always think of it too […]
October 7, 2014
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