Rescue 911
When my son was little in the 80s and early 90s, the whole family used to love the TV show “Rescue 911.” It was one of my guilty pleasures. A reality show that featured staged reenactments of actual 911 calls … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Getting philosophical: life, love, the universe
Taps for the greatest generation
Today is the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day. I reposted something I wrote a few years ago in honor of the occasion, but I have a few more thoughts to add. Seventy years is a long time, but not … Continue reading →
Going to…
…a funeral today, so posting will be light. I’ve been thinking about the passage of time lately. I went to a wedding this past Saturday and there was my own childhood friend taking up her role as the mother of … Continue reading →
Graphic illustration of why the rise of photography…
…has coincided with a rise in the rate of depression. The ravages of time didn’t used to be so well-documented. Then again—there’s a genre of YouTube videos that feature the morphing of photos of the same person over a long … Continue reading →
Reacting to the death of Steve Jobs
I’ve been amazed at the scope and depth of the reaction to the death of Apple’s Steve Jobs. It goes beyond the fact that he was relatively young and very prominent and influential. We’re seeing what looks like deep grief … Continue reading →
Irving Kristol and the Turnings: do we ever learn?
A reader alerts me to this essay about one of the early neoconservatives, Irving Kristol. I especially liked this part: For those of us who had lived through the tumults and frustrations of the seventies, a heyday of ineffective governance … Continue reading →
Answering machines and the law of unintended consequences
I spent a ton of time the other day hooked up to a phone tree that went around in circles and ultimately failed to answer my question or even deal with it at all. I finally gave up. But while … Continue reading →
In the Alzheimer’s unit
Last week I visited two elderly relatives who’ve recently moved to an assisted living facility not too far from me. They’re in their mid-eighties, and although they’ve been married for more than 50 years they live in separate wings of … Continue reading →
Updike on the self
I’ve been revisiting the memoir Self-Consciousness by John Updike, which I first read when it was published in 1989. Updike is best known for his novels, but I consider them his weakest genre. I much prefer the short stories and … Continue reading →
Love and cynicism
Here’s a touching column on lasting marital love by Tim Muldoon (hat tip: the Anchoress). He writes “But no less intense is the feeling of radical security we have built together: the knowledge that through all things we can count … Continue reading →
College graduates find a tough job market
The news that college graduates have been having trouble finding jobs, especially positions in their fields, should come as no surprise whatsoever. Different generations have different patterns of luck, and those who come of age in a time of economic … Continue reading →
Phone home: not!
Recently I saw a depressing article in the NY Times about the decline of the telephone conversation. And the comments were even sadder. It seems the phone is going the way of the dodo and the calling card. People would … Continue reading →