*cracks knuckles* Challenge accepted, Carlos Arturo Serrano. Short answer: Yes. Wait wait, put down the pitchforks! You know I started out answering this, “No.” Back in the 1980s, flipping through my pack of Star Wars Bubblegum cards, hoping to find a Leia, one of my fellow-urchins would scratch her ankle Read more
In the book, “The Battle-Fields of 1866,” there is an essay by Edward Dicey about Heligoland, a small German archipelago in the North Sea near Denmark. In the essay, Dicey records the oldest known version of a now-famous adage: What the inhabitants do during the winter is a subject too Read more
I’m biking home, and I take a wide left, and a woman in a huge SUV shouts out the window to me, “Why didn’t you take the sidewalk?” If this had not been something someone had shouted at me before, maybe I wouldn’t have been so irate. I shouted back, Read more
Hustle is killing us, and in more than the “no energy to party” way. It’s not just corporations who are seeking constant, unsustainable growth. It’s embedded in our culture. From a very early age, people are teaching their kids to hustle, worrying about them not “reaching their potential.” Potential to Read more
Remember seeing the Matrix for the first time? How incredibly annoyed you were at the hackneyed plot? No? Just me? Ahem. Yeah, I was the only person in my friend group to leave the movie saying, “That was sooo lame. It’s a plot from a thousand old stories and twilight Read more
How’s that for a provocative headline? I feel the need to start off by saying I love dogs, especially MY dog, Koala, who is the best doggie ever in the history of ever. But as I walked her this morning, and she strained with all her strength to devour a Read more
I was looking for a new doctor, my GP having retired. It was my first attempt, with a female doctor in the same practice, and I’ll never forget our first (and last) appointment. After several familiar questions to establish my medical history, she asked, “How many children?” “None.” She double-checked Read more