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Observation
The first of August. Now, I am not superstitious, except for triskaidekaphobia, but my track record when it comes to August is not good. I was run over by a driverless car in August of 1974, I tested positive for HIV on August 1st, 1997, in August of 2006 I suddenly began limping in what…
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Two responses to Nihilism
In the 19th and 20th centuries modernity came into its fullness, and with this maturation the religious worldview began to fall away leaving us with a crisis of meaning that we’ve come to call Nihilism. The emergence of Nihilism prompted philosophers to ponder anew that clichéd philosophical question – what is the meaning of life?…
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Hole Justice
Today, we describe someone as “in the hole” if they are in debt, upside down on their mortgage, or more generally in dire circumstances, but in medieval Germany that might literally be a description of your day in court. Imagine receiving a court summons that reads: You are hereby ordered to appear before the court…
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Chesterton’s Fence
Few things are easier to ridicule than a regulation. Republicans have made a meal out of this since Ronald Reagan mockingly said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” Nobody wakes up in the morning excited about fire codes. No one tells friends…
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The life we live and the stories we tell
Daniel Kahneman was an Israeli-American psychologist and Nobel laureate. Along with Amos Tversky, Kahneman established a cognitive basis for common human errors that arise from heuristics and biases, and developed “prospect theory” (cited in the decision to award him the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics). In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow he explores what…
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This is not what it looks like!
Throughout my career, I can honestly say I never dipped my pen in the company ink, if you get my meaning. I came close, once, at a Christmas party, with a recordist from the Sunset-Gower lot, but some friends realized I was making a total ass of myself and intervened. I was really drunk. I…
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The man who almost destroyed the planet… twice
This is a cautionary tale. History is full of inventors who changed the world. Thomas Edison gave us the light bulb. Alexander Graham Bell, the telephone. The Wright brothers taught humanity that flying was not just for the birds. Then we have Thomas Midgley Jr.: environmental historian JR McNeill said of him that he may…
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The day fish was cancelled
We had fish for lunch yesterday. To be more accurate, I should say they served fish for lunch yesterday. I had an egg salad sandwich. Around here, the kitchen always offers an alternative when seafood is the entrée. It’s usually chicken. But yesterday James whipped up a batch of the most delicious egg salad I’ve…
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Welcome to the gerontocracy
Mitch McConnell is alive! And heading back to work. See? There’s no conspiracy here, as some of the dim bulbs in Trump’s orbit were suggesting, like Laura Looney – um, sorry, my bad… I mean Loomer – who, amidst the four weeks of secrecy and cagey information released about the senator’s condition after being hospitalized,…
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You probably don’t need to know this
We have already established that as a young boy I was rubbish at sports. It wasn’t for lack of trying. My father, may he rest in peace, had me “try out” for everything, but when it came to a ball, I was simply no good at kicking one down a lawn, hitting one with a…
Your mileage may vary.