It’s easy to mock George Packer for what he writes in this Atlantic essay about choosing a school for his son in New York City. But I find his essay heartbreaking as well as complex. He’s a well-meaning liberal who … Continue reading →
My mother was an excellent writer. She was also a good storyteller—that is, an entertaining one—although she sometimes embellished things for the sake of the story. I know this for a fact because I sometimes heard her stories about me … Continue reading →
Eighteen years is a long time. On September 11th of 2001, many of the people about to vote in 2020 hadn’t yet been born, and others were so young they don’t remember a time before 9/11. The attack has always … Continue reading →
Recently commenter “Tom Grey” wrote this: I actually think your writing should ALSO be in some more conservative media group site like PJ Media / Townhall / Breitbart? / OAN? but I can imagine even asking them to pay you … Continue reading →
A while back I was explaining to someone what it is that I do as a blogger, and I said, “I write a couple of term papers a day.” Strange, isn’t it, considering that I hated writing term papers in … Continue reading →
Did you ever wake up convinced you were in one place, and then look around and realize you’re in another? Maybe you’re on vacation and you think you’re at home, until you look around the room and everything is unfamiliar. … Continue reading →
Do you talk to yourself? Not aloud (although you may do that, too; I certainly do), but in your head? Psychologists who study the phenomenon say: …we don’t have to use full sentences to talk to ourselves, because we know … Continue reading →
Saturday night, at the end of a long day, I noticed that my computer’s ability to navigate Firefox had slowed down. It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed it; the problem’s been going on for a while. It’s a subtle … Continue reading →
The other night I was in New York City and encountered what I immediately decided was a microburst. We were walking (there’s a lot of walking in New York) to a restaurant, and it began to rain. It was a … Continue reading →
I often see online references to how unreliable Wiki is as a source. I used to ascribe to that point of view, particularly when Wiki was first becoming popular. I would add a kind of disclaimer whenever I linked to … Continue reading →
[WARNING: Trivial whining and carping about minor problems ahead. Or, you can just jump to the video at the end.] It’s not that my day so far has been bad. It’s just—well—you be the judge. A while back I was … Continue reading →
Apparently, that’s a thing. But Woodstock passed me by almost completely at the time. I read about it right after it happened, and it was just one of many hippy-ish events that happened during those years, albeit a photogenic one … Continue reading →