Happiness According to the Experts
If you had a serious medical question, chances are you would not ask your brother-in-law the politician. If you are like most of us, you would not only seek out a doctor who specialized in your ailment, but you would probably go a step further to find the smartest one. In an age where this […]
Tech “R” Us
We humans like to measure things. Companies like Survey Monkey (which collects 16 million answers daily) will take nearly any business contact you’ve had and convert it into a number. Over the past week, they’ve hit me up for ratings on a hair salon, a cable provider and an auto parts store. On a scale […]
A Line in the Silicon
During the siege of the Alamo in 1836, Lt. Col. William Travis is said to have drawn a line in the sand with his sword, imploring those who were willing to defend the fort to step across. While the story itself has since been debunked, it was good enough to insert the phrase “a line […]
Momma’s Boy
When I was growing up, you were a Momma’s Boy, a Man’s Man, or something in-between. Most of us belonged to the in-between group. Dare I say life is a bit more complicated these days? There was a time not long ago when a female voice making an announcement on an airplane was assumed to […]
You Are Here
The late comedian Myron Cohen told the story of a man who hid in the bedroom closet when his paramour’s husband arrived home unexpectedly. When the husband opens the closet door and asks what he’s doing there, he replies “Everybody gotta be someplace.” This existential truth has engaged mankind from the beginning, as have its […]
Hair Maker
Great inventions are often born at the intersection of two seemingly unrelated observations. Consider hot glue guns and bald guys. Observation #1: Sometimes when you pull a glue gun back from the item being glued it leaves a thin, hair-like strand of hardened plastic. Observation #2: Bald guys have no hair. Although assaulting a bald […]
Getting Lost
Recently my wife and I drove 400 miles to attend a wedding. The festivities took place in a small northern California town where neither of us had ever been. Although some planning went into the trip, navigation was never much of a concern. With Siri calling out the turns, we drove confidently into hitherto unknown […]
Darwin’s Business Plan
“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.” Charles Darwin Charles Darwin was not an atheist, and he started out studying medicine and theology before finally settling on natural history. Nearly everyone associates his […]
If a Tree Falls
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” This is a classic thought experiment from Philosophy 101, intended to kick off a flurry of questions about the relationship between observation and reality. For science-minded folk who have no patience for such drivel, the […]
Easier is Better
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” (Friedrich Nietzsche) We love inspirational quotes to help us through challenging times, and this is one of the classics. My late father had another favorite -“Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things” (Henry Ward Beecher). The common theme in these […]
