Commenter Rufus T. Firefly asks a question that I find interesting: Has anyone noticed EVERYONE seems to have aged 5 or more years during the two years of lockdowns? I first started noticing this in myself, prior to the lockdowns … Continue reading →
Lia Thomas has been declared an NCAA women’s champion: Penn swimmer Lia Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle championship on Thursday to become the first transgender NCAA champion in Division I history. She finished the race in 4:33.24, beating Virginia’s … Continue reading →
My favorite classical composers are as follows: Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Dvorak. Note the order; Chopin leads the way. Is that because I was heavily exposed to Chopin from the age of four in ballet class? I don’t think it’s just … Continue reading →
Recently on this blog and elsewhere I’ve seen variants of the question “doesn’t it bother you that on the issue of Ukraine you are in some sort of agreement with Democrats?” – only it’s often asked in a way that … Continue reading →
Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment, and while I was sitting in the waiting room I was reading on my cellphone. An elderly man (more elderly than I am, anyway) was sitting across from me. He had a walker and … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Today is Presidents’ Day, and this is a repeat of a previous post.] I’m not that old, but pedagogical practices in my youth seem absolutely archaic compared to whatever passes for education these days. For starters, we had Washington’s … Continue reading →
For most of my life I never had any interest in genealogy, although I did have an interest in family stories. And it was the family story of a long-lost great-uncle, a mystery I wanted to solve, that propelled me … Continue reading →
For me, the 1980s are somewhat of a blur, because I spent them having a baby and then raising that baby and intermittently working part-time. I was exhausted much of the time, and not really part of the zeitgeist. Which … Continue reading →
Ed Driscoll reports on what it’s like in this age of still-existent COVID restrictions. I’m certainly not racing out to do it. And yet, for a short time right before COVID I was thinking of trying it. One of the … Continue reading →
Lately there have been so many events that cry out for in-depth analysis that I often feel overwhelmed, and I think I’d feel that way even if my task was limited to reading about them – forget about trying to … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This post was inspired by a discussion in the comments in this thread.] I don’t speak German at all except for a few words. In fact, foreign languages aren’t my forte, although I’m sensitive to sounds. Until a few … Continue reading →
You probably already have noticed it in your daily life, but the latest figures on inflation are not good at all: Inflation has now hit the highest rate in 40 years, jumping 7.5 percent since last February, the biggest year-over-year … Continue reading →