I must admit that I find it disturbingly amusing to contemplate how people view the possibility of non-Earth (i.e., alien or extraterrestrial) visitors, especially how they maintain hope and optimism about the potential arrival of said aliens. Unless you learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it (a notion often attributed to George Santayana). […]
Read More →In these “modern” times there seems to be an overwhelming urge to divide American society-culture into divisive elements rather than regard it as in integrated whole. Let’s dive a little deeper. Think of these divisions: Economists want to talk about the lower, middle and upper classes and create financial layers everywhere. Racially and ethnicity-inclined folks […]
Read More →After a long and particularly arduous ordeal at work I settled into my favorite easy chair at home, relishing the solitary adult beverage I normally permit myself, and sat assiduously scanning through the cascading news on my digital device of choice, looking desperately for something which, upon reading, wouldn’t prompt me to run screaming into […]
Read More →Still irritated after all these years… I have written previously about things that make me worry and scurry, but now I feel compelled by recent events (insert puking sound) to rant and pontificate on things, in no particular prioritized order, that simply irritate the seven shades of shiny goat scat out of me. Unsynchronized traffic […]
Read More →Generally speaking, I leave Biblical explication to others eminently more qualified. However, in the process of some research for a book I am laboriously laboring over, I came across something so compelling that I thought you might want to read about it. This is from Revelations 13:18, of the Christian New Testament: Here is wisdom […]
Read More →There are mentally-stimulating, thought-provoking, and often disturbing side effects to a continuous and non-stop exposure to global events via the Internet. It offers a very unsettling, uneasy, sometimes horrific, and confusing notion of what it means to be human. We are now exposed – through online news, social websites and many other portals – to […]
Read More →He was dreaming. That had to be it. He remembered some of his Shakespeare – To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub, That makes Calamity of so long a life: He did not feel like his life was a calamity. However, he was indeed old – he was completely aware of that fact […]
Read More →Many (okay, fine, most) of the people I have interacted with lately have been commenting about me (sometimes to my face and sometimes not) on what a grumpy, grouchy, cantankerous anti-social person I have become. I paused the other day to ponder this development, and to consider what has caused this peculiar predicament. I have […]
Read More →Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. – Mark Twain You don’t stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you stop laughing. – Maurice Chevalier The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing […]
Read More →Let’s agree (just for the sake of this convoluted discussion) that the Universe exists. I mean, I’ve written the sentence above and you’re reading it. Some kind of “thing” exists. In other words, it’s not some kind of “Matrix” projection or extraterrestrial simulation – there is a real world and we live in it. If […]
Read More →I want to talk about an ancient fable, “The Hare and the Tortoise,” because it is very appropriate for today’s world – both in terms of our personal lives and our business endeavors. Everyone is hopefully familiar with that ancient tale but – for the sake of universal clarity and a shared starting point – […]
Read More →I live on the third floor of a three-story condo unit. Nice community. Gated. Not sure how secure it is though. I was drinking a beer the other day with Pat — the maintenance guy — and we started talking about security, and somehow he let it slip that the gate code for the maintenance […]
Read More →We like to think of ourselves as urbane, sophisticated, intelligent. We modern folk are not superstitious – we believe in science and technology and the practical applications thereof. We scoff at our ancient ancestors and all the gods, spirits, and mystical forces they revered and worshiped. We look at the pantheon of Roman, Greek, Norse […]
Read More →Most people love cats or dogs. Maybe birds. Shoot, even reptiles. Snakes. Hamsters. Gerbils. (Seriously, gerbils?) I love the dung beetle. I know, it just seems so wrong. I think the immediate response of most people has to be “huh,” or some more colorful derivation thereof. A great many people simply stare at me blank-faced […]
Read More →The official publication of the United States Chess Federation (USCF) is Chess Life magazine. And, they just published a short story that I wrote. Also, please don’t start a sentence with and… Anyway, you can read this great short story and also support the USCF, which is a wonderful organization promoting chess and the fine […]
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