The ancient activity of laundering has woven itself into our culture in many ways. As an example, there was once a popular catchphrase “no tickee, no washee” which derived from the time when most of the laundry businesses in the U.S., were owned and operated by immigrants from China. Originally it meant that, in order […]
At a certain point between “Some Of” and “Too Much Of,” there comes a magic amount called “Just Enough.” You may remember the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. If any part of it has stayed in your mind, it’s probably where Goldilocks tastes the Bears’ porridge and finds the Papa Bear’s “too hot” […]
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Jerry Lettvin was one of several treasured mentors in my life. He was an MD and an electrical engineer, holding positions in biology and electrical engineering at MIT. I was a student in a most unique program he ran at MIT called “Concourse.” We did the usual classes, but we were in a smaller group, […]
Most of us have probably had the experience of re-visiting a place we once knew well, and finding it changed in such a way as to tell us we don’t belong there anymore. Thomas Wolfe said it in the title of one of his novels – You Can’t Go Home Again. There is a word […]
In size and extent, the British Empire (even without the American colonies which it lost in 1776) was the greatest the world has ever known. It was usually colored red on world maps, and you could easily see, by looking at a globe, the truth of the expression, “The sun never sets on the British […]
That surely can’t be it I thought, as we walked across the tarmac toward a Volkswagen Beetle on skis with a long purple tail and a spinning propeller on top! Oh, and NO doors! I looked at Pat. She was zipping up her sweatshirt and adjusting the flotation device strapped around her waist… “We will […]
Do you ever check your email spam folder? This may not seem very cosmic, but it reveals some odd biases. If you send an email to someone and they don’t reply, do you feel frustration that they didn’t check their spam folder to find your message? That is fair. But only if you also regularly […]
Much of this system called Nature is apparently based on attraction and repulsion. The repulsion serves to protect – and to keep at least certain members of a species intact – until they have time to reproduce. The attraction is also part of that reproduction process. Most plants can’t physically get together, so some have […]
The idea of blessing – that is, asking God to have some favorable influence on someone or something, is probably as old as religion itself. In some religions, only certain people are authorized to pronounce certain blessings – but in general, in our culture, anybody may, without any special permission, bless any other person, or […]
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The River Jordan is celebrated in many “spiritual” songs. Most of us have heard lines like: Jordan river blessed but cold – Chills the body, but not the soul. “Crossing Jordan” has long been seen as a metaphor for going to Heaven. It all goes back to the Biblical account of that River having to be […]
Many times in life I have gone virtually unnoticed. Not only could I stay safely under the radar, I could have set up camp inside a radar dish and only gotten spotted when I fired up my charcoal grill. “O. M. G. There’s a flaming meteor about to hit earth… ah crap, never mind it’s […]
Back in July 2006 I watched a BookTV interview with Francis Collins, talking about his book The Language of God. At the time, Collins was Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; the massive government project to map the human genome, initiated by President Clinton. Privately funded projects actually reached much of the goal […]
One of the most famous of all historical events was the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. The killers were a group of men whom Caesar had considered his friends and supporters. The leader of this conspiracy, whose name was Brutus, is said to have been the last to deliver the fatal blow. And […]
Although I have officially been a Doctor of Philosophy in American History for many years, it was only recently that I got interested in reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This came about through reading another book, Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking People, which makes a big point about how important the Uncle Tom book […]
