It Really is a Fascist Flag (at least to some Americans)
September 21, 2023
Even in elementary school, I found it strange to pledge allegiance to a flag. Being loyal to my country, fine, but a piece of cloth? I’m also old
I love the New York Times Metropolitan Diary
September 19, 2023
It was published here. It’s rare that jokes and cartoons make me laugh out loud, but this story from The Metropolitan Diary, one of my favorite
Watching The Ten Commandments in Gafsa, Tunisia, in the sixtes
September 12, 2023
Back in the 60s, the cinema in Gafsa showed The Ten Commandments. About a half dozen of my girl students recruited me to chaperone them. Afterwards,
I wanna be like these guys when I’m their age!
September 7, 2023
Wait! I am their age! (Of course the videos were made when they were younger and then really well dubbed.)
The insignificance of photography
September 2, 2023
Found at The New Yorker
Enough
September 2, 2023
I remember hearing or reading some form of this story long ago. I associated it with John C Bogle, the man who enabled Iris and me to retire in
photos from our trip to Japan
August 19, 2023
This is our first rough selection of photos from our trip to Japan. There are few comments at this point. We have been kept busy. In fact, I’m
MoveOn wants to amend the Constitution?
August 1, 2023
Ben & Jerry used their platform to encourage everyone to mark their money with a rubber stamp: This is a terrible idea! Can you just imagine what a
Google Sheet Number Formatting
July 30, 2023
Google Sheets has fairly good formatting for displaying numbers and dates. But I often use Google Sheets to create data for exporting to TSV files
Summer Brake
July 29, 2023
A friend of mine (not a native speaker of English) (not that native speakers or even spelling correctors know any better) sent out this message: «
Romantic technologies and ideologies
July 29, 2023
I’m intrigued by this article “That Deep Romantic Chasm”: Libertarianism, Neoliberalism, and the Computer Culture because it reminds me of the old
PITY THE NATION
July 26, 2023
Pity the nation whose people are sheep And whose shepherds mislead them Pity the nation whose leaders are liars Whose sages are silenced And
Basho’s poem, Even in Kyoto
July 15, 2023
I believe that Haas’s translation is far from literal since the last line simply simply names the cuckoo, but it is far and away the most beautiful
War in Ukraine - an explanation
June 10, 2023
I’ve finally found the clearest and most convincing explanation of why Russia invaded Ukraine. The first step to understanding is to learn about the
Timothy Snyder’s History of Ukraine
May 28, 2023
Timothy Snyder is a Yale historian whose lectures on Eastern Europe - especially Ukraine - are not only enlightening, but actually fun. I’ve learned
Fake Email Senders
May 21, 2023
I’ve been fascinated for a long time by the creative names that people - okay, political campaigns and companies wanting to sell me something - put
More on language learning
May 15, 2023
In a discussion with my college classmates last year (2022), I wrote: Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 6:22 PM This discussion prompted me to write up my
Effect and Cause
April 29, 2023
(I wrote this in 2014. I think it’s an attempt at poetry, which explains all the repetition. Unfinished, but I like it.) When I was a little boy, I
Soros is my Co-Pilot
April 17, 2023
It’s fun making a bumper sticker of my own
Note à une chère amie
March 19, 2023
J’entends mon cerveau formant la phrase « T’es trop gentille, mon Amie! » afin de te remercier plus fortement que normalement. Mais je m’arrête en
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