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Where’s my flying car?
The 1960s were an amazing time to be born, if only for the television programs. And growing up in the 70s meant those programs found their way into syndication and were a kindof “life primer” for a young boy like me in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Flipping between channel 11 (KTTV) and channel 13…
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More Fool Me
Well it’s here. April Fools’ Day. I didn’t post anything for it last year. And the year before that, I mimicked the BBC’s 1957 Swiss Spaghetti Harvest story from the news program Panorama. So I thought this year I would talk about the origins of the day. Seriously, no joke. Despite its widespread popularity across…
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Remember The Captain and Tennille?
I have always said I “grew up” in the 80s. But chronologically that’s not entirely true. I “came of age” in the 80s, but the boy to teenager progression – what we typically mean by “growing up” – took place in the 70s; in fact, I became a teenager just as the decade was changing:…
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The Tipping Point
Tipping, or the practice of giving gratuities for service, is so ingrained in some societies that it feels natural and inevitable. Yet its origins reveal a far more complex and uneven history, shaped by class structures, labor systems, and cultural values. Far from being universal, tipping emerged in specific historical contexts and continues to vary…
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The In-between
When I was 15, a teacher whose name I’m struggling to remember gave us an essay assignment: in 500 words, describe your life at 35. I had a very clear idea of where I would be and what I would be doing. I had gotten my Master’s degree in English from UCLA, had returned to…
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People are stupid
When I was growing up in Los Angeles in the 70s, every car had two things inside: the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours on 8-track tape, and a copy of the Thomas Guide. The Thomas Guide was a paperback, spiral-bound atlas featuring detailed street maps of the city; it was such a fixture of life in…
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Schrödinger’s Cat
One of the most famous thought experiments in modern science and philosophy is Erwin Schrödinger’s cat, a paradox that captures the strange and counterintuitive nature of the microscopic world, brought to our modern consciousness by the Caltech physics nerds on the hit television sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Introduced in 1935, the idea was not…
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Toward a new Poodlism
Today, the calendar turns our attention to St. Patrick, who was not himself Irish but is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century. “St. Patrick’s Day” comes around once a year and celebrates Irish culture, heritage, and traditions with wearing green (symbolizing Ireland, the “Emerald Isle”), symbols like shamrocks (which Saint Patrick…
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Beware the Ides of March
Today is the the Ides of March, observed on March 15. Its origins are in the ancient Roman calendar, and it has become one of the most famous dates in the history of the world. Though originally a routine marker of time in the Roman civic and religious calendar, the day became immortalized because of…
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A round of a’paws
Dogs are among the most socially connected animals we interact with on a daily basis. Their behavior reflects the deep bond they form with us, particularly when it comes to moments of separation. Yesterday, in the midst of a game of Rummikub during our “Games with Chuck” activity in which I finally beat Betsy at…
Your mileage may vary.