March 2021
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Thar She Blows! Thar He Spews!
The Atlantic: “An Entire Group of Whales Has Somehow Escaped Human Attention” I love articles like this because they remind me that as much as we know about our planet, there is still much more to discover. This piece is pretty long, but worth scanning at least. I didn’t know…
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The More You D’oh!
Plato? Descartes? Emerson? What a bunch of amateurs! The philosopher that best understands the human spirit is Homer Simpson, a middle-class American man in his late 30s. As one of Homer’s disciples, I’d like to share some of his teachings. First, if you want people to respect you, you have…
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The Freedom to Make Mistakes?
I recently heard someone say that having freedom means having the freedom to make mistakes.1 This was mentioned in the context of mask mandates during the current Covid-19 pandemic. This seemed like a reasonable opinion at first, but something about it gnawed at me. After some rumination, I think I…
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I Don’t Care if I Ever Get Back
USA Today: “Cubs Prospect Arrested With 21 Pounds of Meth in Team Duffel Bag” A haiku: Peanuts, crackerjack?What else is at the snack barAt the old ball game?
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Fear ≠ Hate, so Let’s Replace the Word “Homophobia”
Let’s get rid of the word “homophobia.” The word “phobia” comes from the Greek word for “fear.” That’s why the fear of enclosed spaces is claustrophobia, the fear of spiders is arachnophobia, and the fear of the number 13 is triskaidekaphobia.1 Homophobia isn’t rooted in fear. It’s rooted in hate.…
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Everybody Loves Haiku!
OpportunityOr more indecisiveness?Which will win this time? Britt was in DenverTo see sister, niece, nephew.I was very bored. More than one haiku?They’re haiku. Just like with moose,Don’t tack on an -s.
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Lights … Camera … More Lights!
As I’ve said before, I love how my iPhone automatically collects memories and presents them as little videos. This is the one I received this morning. It’s from a trip to a Chinese lantern festival at Lowry Park Zoo (which is now called ZooTampa) in March 2015. As I understand…
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There Are no Stupid Questions, but There Are Definitely Stupid Answers
When college career counselors prepared me to enter the job market,1 they drilled one lesson in my head: Be prepared to tell interviewers why you want the job. That lesson sprang to mind a few days ago as I read the obituaries for journalist Roger Mudd. All of the coverage…
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The Plot Thickens? Maybe Not.
One of the things that have been holding me back from writing a novel is that I simply can’t think of a plot. But maybe I don’t need one. I just finished the first three books in the Wayfarer series.1 Becky Chambers is an adept storyteller who has created a…
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Speaking of Boulder Falls
I mentioned Boulder Falls in a post earlier this week. It’s a hiking trail in Colorado (not as close to Boulder as the name suggests). Here’s a short video I made about our visit there: