Arnold Schwarzenegger
March 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
March 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
February 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
January 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
January 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
December 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
December 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!
December 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
December 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!
December 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
December 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
December 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.
November 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
November 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
How you know when your volleyball-playing days are over
October 7, 2022
Saeed Jones
September 21, 2022
Driving home from Durham last Tuesday, I turned on my radio and heard the end of a riveting poem that seemed to describe many of my feelings about
Why history moves in cycles
August 27, 2022
Hard times make strong people, strong people make good times, and good times make weak people - Xabier Ormaetxea, a dark-haired
Shopping lists
August 11, 2022
Our daughter knows how hard I’ve searched for a good checklist for tasks like shopping, etc. Today she sent me this image, found on Twitter: I
Frédéric Bruly Bouabré « L’alphabet de l’ouest africain »
May 6, 2022
MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, has an exhibit of the work of Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Côte d’Ivoire, 1923–2014. Born in 1923 in Zéprégühé in
American Anti-Government sentiment
April 3, 2022
Rather than writing much here, I want to refer you to this perceptive article by Ezra Klein. Klein’s two concluding paragraphs should be enough to
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