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
Apr 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
Apr 17, 2023
It’s fun making a bumper sticker of my own
Note à une chère amie
Mar 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
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Mar 8, 2023
Schwarzenegger’s messages are almost always clear and to the point. This talk on fascism is no exception. I found this thanks to the Daily Kos
Why Purim upsets me
Mar 8, 2023
I first heard of Purim while serving in Gafsa, Tunisia, as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in a lycée (high school). Gafsa still had 13
I was a Programmer Who Swore Constantly
Feb 11, 2023
One of the most fundamental unanswered questions that has been bothering mankind during the Anthropocene is whether the use of swearwords in open
I perceive new things as my nerves slow down
Jan 23, 2023
I walked into our living room just now holding a check in my right hand to ask my wife if she had an envelope. She said she did and started walking
B&N’s new president
Jan 3, 2023
Ted Gioio has an interesting article on substack: What Can We Learn from Barnes & Noble’s Surprising Turnaround?. He claims that B&N is doing
Learning French with the FSI Method
Dec 29, 2022
In late summer of 1964 I entered Peace Corps training in Carbondale, Illinois. What I want to describe here is the greatest learning experience of
Release time Xtian education in public school
Dec 28, 2022
Rummaging through files that I’ve kept since childhood, I came across this certificate that I received in 6th grade of my elementary school in
The Bastard! He doesn’t exist!
Dec 28, 2022
I made this note years ago, probably in the 90s, and have kept it taped to my wall ever since. I’m especially tickled by the language, which both
I used to have so much fun cutting pictures and words out of magazines and newspapers
Dec 28, 2022
I had this up on my wall in my college dorm, I think. (I don’t see signs of tape or anything….)
Photoshop brushes drive me crazy!
Dec 28, 2022
I’ve always been driven crazy by the fact that Ps brushes have TWO circles. I don’t know why. It’s the inner circle that seems to paint You can see
I warn people about confusing Dropbox behavior
Dec 28, 2022
I got this question about a post I made on Reddit. u/areyouredditenough, I’m not sure I understand your question. The best I can think to do is to
2022-01-12 Tunisia’s spicy Harissa gets UNESCO heritage status
Dec 1, 2022
You can read this story in French or English While in Tunisia, I learned to cook couscous Southern Tunisian style, in other words,the best kind of
Today is Thanksgiving 2022, aka Turkey Day.
Nov 24, 2022
One tradition that I always observe is to use canned cranberry sauce on my turkey dinner. Cranberry sauce reminds me of my childhood because that’s
Proposed Driving Itinerary of the Cathar Region
Nov 9, 2022
This driving itinerary strikes me as a good place to continue our discussions. It is strongly based on this web page. This map shows most of the
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