Segmented sleep
I’ve long been a natural night owl. Even as a child with an eight o’clock bedtime it just didn’t feel right to me, and as early as grade school I customarily went to bed as late as my parents would … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Me, myself, and I
Biting the hand that pets you
Cats. Not my favorite creatures. Oh, I’ve met some cats I’ve liked. Sweet ones, gentle ones, funny ones. But in general, cats are not my cup of tea (although, in their paradoxical way, they tend to really, really like me). … Continue reading →
Genetics and exercise
I’ve always liked exercise. I just don’t feel well when I’m inactive. After my severe back and arm injuries about two decades ago, and the resultant chronic pain, some of my range of activities was reduced. No more tennis, which … Continue reading →
Musical primacy
[NOTE: This post of mine sparked the following reflections.] Our responses to music are closely tied to emotion as well as memory. People who are brain-damaged and cannot speak can sometimes access music and even lyrics; different parts of the … Continue reading →
Do you look like your dog?
I had a small white fluffy dog, a smallish-to-medium-sized cockerpoo. We got him when our son was eight years old. No one in our family looked like him (the dog, not the child), although I suppose we were all about … Continue reading →
Thoughts on tax day
[NOTE: This is an edited version of an essay of mine from the past.] Today is April 15th. This means that millions of us will be making our way to the copy machine and then on to the post office … Continue reading →
McConnellgate
Jonathan S. Tobin has a piece in Commentary entitled, “The Media Can’t Bury McConnellgate”: Is it ever okay to bug an opponent’s political headquarters? Even those who are too young to remember what happened when officials connected with Richard Nixon’s … Continue reading →
Educational evolution
Commenter “Mike” quotes me in a previous post, and adds his reaction: “In high school we were assigned to read Crime and Punishment, as well as the “Grand Inquisitor” excerpt from Karamazov, and in college I read his chilling work … Continue reading →
Lenin, Dostoevsky, and me
[NOTE: The other day I happened across an old post from March of 2009. As I read it, I realized that I was probably describing one of the earliest manifestations of my change experience, even though I wouldn’t have called … Continue reading →
RIP Annette Funicello
[Hat tip: commenter “Artfldgr”] The news of Margaret Thatcher’s death today eclipsed this news for me. But to those of a certain age, Annette (we were on a first-name basis) was a formative figure in our childhood. I never was … Continue reading →
Not wild about Wild
I belong to a book group, as it seems about 99% of American women do these days. The books are more or less a pretext for getting together, talking, eating, and talking (did I say talking?). Sometimes I read the … Continue reading →
Marriage: when?
In the annals of embarrassing-mother moments, Susan Patton’s letter to the Princeton paper—exhorting girls (women?) at the school to look around at wonderful guys such as her son (a student there) and consider them a great pool of marriage material … Continue reading →