I have a baby, who cries at night. She cries because she needs to be fed. In our house, the baby eats nothing but breast milk, so I can’t actually feed her without dipping into the precious supply of refrigerated (or frozen) breast milk we have on hand so that my wife can occasionally be […]
Archive | Humanity
Maggots and More
Just finished reading Death’s Acre, all about the “Body Farm,” (which is the world’s only facility dedicated to understanding how human bodies decompose), and how the information gleaned from that facility has helped to solve crimes. It’s written by the founder of the body farm, Bill Bass, and a journalist co-writer. If you can handle […]
A Secret
Being in the middle of a good book is like having a secret. I occasionally look up from it, notice the people around me, and realize that they’re not happily lost in this other world the way that I am. Especially if the book isn’t a popular one. I’m sure that I’d feel this way […]
Now Open
The Creation Museum. If you don’t want to subscribe for free to the New York Times online, you can read about it here, here, here, etc. One thing that seems to be missing from all these “reviews” and news articles is any sense of outrage or contempt. There’s no good reason that a publication of […]
Spiders and Humans
I washed a spider down my shower drain last night. I generally let them live, as long as they’re not in my bed, or crawling around somewhere in my way, or clearly venomous. (I killed a black widow a few months ago with no remorse at all.) As I washed it down, I thought about […]
I Exist!
So, I’ve been preoccupied with baby and work (and the occasional nap). And since I really don’t want this blog to be about work or my private life, I haven’t had a lot to say. The shootings in VA happened while I was in a vacuum. I didn’t hear about them at all until a […]
Value
I wonder why it is that reading literature as a hobby is considered somehow better than watching basketball. I mean for an adult. I totally get why kids should be reading literature. But for adults. If a person doesn’t enjoy reading Dickens, then what’s the point? To learn about Victorian England? Where is that going […]
Tragedy + Time = Comedy
I recently read Tobias Wolff’s autobiographical “This Boy’s Life,” about his time as a young delinquent. Since I’ve also read his, “In Pharaoh’s Army,” an autobiographical account of his time in Vietnam, I feel as though I’ve pretty well covered the guy’s life up until he became a writer. Near the end of “This Boy’s […]
Sex!
I’m up late working, about to go to bed, and I see this item linked from cruel.com: A couple is found guilty of “Neglect” for having sex in front of their nine year old daughter. They didn’t force her to watch, understand, but they didn’t hide it in any way. They get 3 years probation. […]
Old Dogs and New Tricks
“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes It could turn out that Holmes was even more brilliant than we thought. The next big thing in brain health may be, yep, video games. Coming soon after the research showing that video games may […]