I do a lot of scanning for my work. My Microtek scanner of many years died and could not be repaired because Microtek went out of business. The only replacement option was an all-in-one printer and scanner. I chose Epson. The software that comes with these all-in-one devices is not usable for anyone doing serious […]
“The Federal Government declared war on poverty, and poverty won.” My least favorite president in history, Reagan, made this “joke” in his 1988 State of the Union speech. In 1992 candidate Bill Clinton promised “a plan to end welfare as we know it.” Has poverty won? Is “welfare” a failure? First off, there is no […]
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Most of us these days, by the time we may be considered grown up, have lived in more than one place – sometimes in several different places, even in different countries. In a way, this can give a different meaning to what we call “Home” – despite the once popular notion that there is no […]
Often I think my poor oldheartHas given up for goodAnd then I see a brave new face,I glimpse some new neighborhood..– Mancini/Mercer And here we are again. Another …. New Year?! This is a reportedly cyclical occurrence, begat by an explosion that, for reasons I’ve stopped trying to grasp, gave birth to both Time itself […]
It shouldn’t be necessary to do this, but I feel the time has come when somebody needs to say something against grief and grieving. Lately these topics have been getting a very positive consideration in the relevant journals. The word has gone out far and wide from highly qualified experts that, at least in certain […]
As a secular humanist, I don’t do Christmas. But I enjoy the end of year ritual of sending “holiday” cards. A few dozen people get real cards, and a larger circle get emails. Some of these people are close friends. But some are family and friends with whom I rarely have contact. Sometimes for years […]
Allow me to share with you some thoughts and memories about a place called Dover, a town on the south coast of England. As you may know, it’s the closest land to France, across the English Channel which, at that geographical point, has the name of the Strait of Dover. The Channel between the two […]
Until the era of electronic communication, getting word of happenings in other places (to say nothing of instantaneous moving pictures in color) used to be a long, slow process. News could travel on land only as fast as the fastest runner or rider. A man living in California might get a letter from his brother, […]
One of my favorite stories is about an antiques expert who, one day, while driving down a country road, stops at junky-looking store. Before going in, he notices, in the entrance-way, a cat drinking from a saucer. The cat doesn’t interest him – but what does is the saucer, which, he can tell immediately is […]
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The “Holidays” show up every year. If Life seems cyclical that could be – in part – because we live on a spinning ball, if you can imagine. So it’s December. Again. The year-end hullabaloo (to generalize) always gets me thinking about the throngs of people, the millions of hidden lives, the unsurfaced stories that […]
One of the songs I learned at some campfire gathering seemed to me to have profound significance – but I’m still not sure what it was. It’s about “Bill Grogan’s Goat” who, when “feeling fine, ate three red shirts, right off the line.” Bill Grogan was so outraged at this that he not only gave […]
I recently participated in an all-day conference on prisons and recovery, co-sponsored by the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara. One recurring theme? The ACE score: Adverse Childhood Experiences. Here is a simplified list of ten such adverse childhood experiences: Physical abuseEmotional abusePhysical neglectEmotional neglectSexual abuseViolence toward motherSubstance abuse in householdHousehold mental illnessHousehold member incarceratedParental separation […]
Summer camp can be an educational experience, but not necessarily as the organizers intended. My first time was in 1943 at Camp Airy in Thurmont, Maryland. (It is still in operation today.) I was nine years old. World War II was still on. I went together with my best friend, Nathan Mensh, whose family lived […]
You have probably heard of educator Salman Khan and his Khan Academy. I recently attended a talk he gave for UCSB. Khan had been a hedge fund analyst. A good family man, he wanted to help his cousin Nadya with her math back in 2004. He tutored her over the phone and was able to […]
