After working for a while to clean out my son's closet, I made the mistake of taking a break to look around the room: total chaos. A pile of stuff to give away in one corner; another coupla things to move into my closet; recycling; trash; mismatched … [Read more...] about The Storm Before the Calm
Coke Justice
It all started with Tab. As a teenager desperately struggling to lose weight on a series of fad diets, I abused Tab to the tune of 6 to 12 cans a day.When I was 16, for 30 days I ingested nothing but 2 tablespoons of liquid protein a day and 6 Tabs. … [Read more...] about Coke Justice
(:)(:)(:) for Robots on IMAX
3 firm snouts facing upward for Robots on IMAX. I liked it very much. I really did. True to expectation, the computer-animated film created an amusing and fascinating world of robots and the many problems they face.What I did not expect was yet … [Read more...] about (:)(:)(:) for Robots on IMAX
Silent Hamster
For years now, every night when I tuck her in, my eight year old daughter requires me to sing a version of the following song (sung to the obvious tune). I sing the words in regular type, she chimes in with the ones in italics. Some of the "regular … [Read more...] about Silent Hamster
The Power of Gratitude
Lately I have been experimenting with gratitude. I have always thought of myself as generally grateful, appreciating, at least on an intellectual level, that I had options, choices, worries that were luxuries for 99% of the world population. In … [Read more...] about The Power of Gratitude
Memory Walks
What is it about the human mind that so enjoys retracing its steps? On a recent trip to New Orleans, I greatly enjoyed finding the hotel we stayed in when we eloped there 15 years ago (today) and the restaurants in which we ate such memorable … [Read more...] about Memory Walks
A Bug’s Life
Michael "Bug" Deakin is an artist who re-captures amazing wood, fallen trees, old barns and chicken coops and buildings that had to come down, and remakes them into gorgeous furniture, new buildings and treasures. Along with two other Amazonian … [Read more...] about A Bug’s Life
The Poly Bodytick
So like while you were all working today I was getting a fabulous massage from a woman named Pao, and I had like this great idea for my blog today and I was going to call it like the Poly Bodytick and it was going to be awesome.And now I barely … [Read more...] about The Poly Bodytick
I’d Rather the Democrats Fight than Dance
Earlier this week, I was excited to see that there was a rift developing between the business-oriented Republicans in Congress and the cultural conservatives over the filibuster rule change showdown on judicial appointments. Apparently the Chamber of … [Read more...] about I’d Rather the Democrats Fight than Dance
Is emailing doing anything about anything?
Bill wants me to blog about how there's a disturbing subsection of the email population who seem to think that joining into an email "discussion" with an impassioned "me too!" is actually doing something.Witness this exchange on our neighborhood … [Read more...] about Is emailing doing anything about anything?
Swami Parmanandi & Me
Friday night I experienced the hindi equivalent of seeing Bono play a room of 40 people. I went to hear Swami Parmanandji talk. The man is an official saint and is said to be followed by hundreds of thousands of people in the world, consulted by … [Read more...] about Swami Parmanandi & Me
David Lynch is All Growed Up
(:)(:)(:)(:) Four Snouts Up for The Straight Story directed by David Lynch.We've happily entered that unfortunate phase of American life where every sector of the family has its own Netflix queue.The movies Bill picks are uniformly excellent, one 4 … [Read more...] about David Lynch is All Growed Up