If you’ve ever had a bad back you know the drill: the doctor places your legs and feet in various positions, takes his hands and pushes in various ways, and asks you to push back each time. What’s he doing? … Continue reading →
Animals living in groups, such as the very social homo sapiens and certain other primates such as chimpanzees, must find ways to get along. We all know that this “getting along” is a relatively flawed and halting proposition. But still,there … Continue reading →
I happened across the February 19th issue of Newsweek at the home of friends with whom I’m staying. Picking it up and thumbing through it (and how odd it seems to me nowadays to see a hard copy of a … Continue reading →
Yesterday I flew on Jet Blue from Boston to Los Angeles. For me this involves not enough sleep the night before as I pack and suddenly realize in the wee hours of the morning that I can’t take half of … Continue reading →
I had heard that blogger Cathy Seipp had been illl and that the prognosis was poor, so this news shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But it did. Someone so young and full of life shouldn’t be dying, we think, … Continue reading →
Here’s the latest from Dr. Sanity, Shrink, Siggy, and me. Tune in for the Squad’s exploration of the strange reactions of some to the news of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s confessions.
Continue reading →Right now even though it’s almost April, and technically the last day of winter, there are huge mounds of snow here, as well as the occasional sidewalk of ice. Soon that will be followed by what’s known as mud season. … Continue reading →
A succinct headline in the Washington Times summed it up nicely: “Anti-war protesters echo Vietnam.” The accent is on the word “echo”—as in “a distant, fainter, repetition.” The anti-Iraq War demonstrations in DC over this weekend were self-consciously and purposefully … Continue reading →
Confession: now that I’m the proud owner of an ipod, I’ve been buying headsets like Imelda Marcos bought shoes. It’s a futile search for listening perfection of the noise-cancelling variety. But I’m different from Imelda; I return all the pairs … Continue reading →
This week was a two-podcaster for me. I was kindly invited by writer, Colonel, and all-around Renaissance man Austin Bay to be on the Blog Week in Review along with the insightful and articulate Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom (yes, … Continue reading →
I’m still on a bit of a Leonard Cohen kick, as well as a YouTube fling. Stay with me here, though; this isn’t just about Cohen. As Gerard Vanderleun has noted, Cohen has an even darker side than the one … Continue reading →
[See Part I.] After Proctor’s turnaround speech, more and more former naysayers came on board in support of war with Spain for the liberation of Cuba. But still, McKinley tried his best at negotiations to avoid it, machinations that ultimately … Continue reading →