Archive for March 2016
The worst name for a food item in all of human history
I’m obsessed with the way foods are named. Chilean sea bass, for example, is really Patagonian tooth fish. Order Patagonian tooth fish the next time you want Chilean sea bass. Please? My list of poorly named foods is extensive. It includes pulled pork, bread pudding, blood oranges, and field greens. But I have discovered the worst name…
Read More27 Things I Wish I Had Known 10 Years Earlier
I read a post on Medium entitled 25 Things I Wish I Had Known 10 Years Earlier. I hated the post. It was filled with platitudes, cliches, and enormous, nonspecific ideas like “Struggle is good” and “Exercise daily” and “Be grateful.” Yuck. I prefer specificity. Things that are more easily understood and applied. Strategies that…
Read MoreA famous writer and I agree on the worst part of sleep
Someone on Twitter sent me this poem: “Sleep.Those little slices of Death. How I loathe them.” I read these three lines and thought, “Yes! I’m not alone! See? Someone else hates sleep, too! Someone else thinks that sleep is way too close to death! See? I’m not crazy!” Then I saw the poet: Edgar Allen Poe “Damn,” I…
Read MoreShe wrote “No.” My heart soared.
My daughter had to vote for her “favorite groovy expression” from the list below. She read through choices. We explained what each expression meant. Then she refused to pick. She didn’t like any of them. “I just like to dance. I don’t like any of this.” “Yes,” Elysha said. “But of the choices here, can you just…
Read MoreDeep, scary, philosophical Star Trek thoughts.
Somehow a discussion about how the transporters work on Star Trek had me in an existential panic. Granted, this is easier to accomplish with me than most people, but still. This is both fascinating and a little terrifying, even if you’re not a Star Trek fan.
Read MoreFew things are as bad as we want people to think. I think.
I was speaking to a friend about the college application process that she recently underwent with her daughter, who I taught years ago. Her words: “It’s wasn’t so bad. Not a big deal at all, really. I’m just happy we’re in a position to send her to college.” I was thrilled – not because I will…
Read MoreThere was a lot wrong with the 1970’s, but these two things might have made up for it.
The 1970′s may have been bathed in second hand smoke and disco, and the dominant political figure of the decade may have been Richard Nixon, but people didn’t speak about hummus like it was a religion, and travel soccer did not exist. So maybe not so bad after all.
Read MoreMy son has cleverly ensured future access to my phone
Charlie has learned to take video selfies – if that is a thing. What he chose to discuss on these videos has guaranteed him future access to our phones, at least for a while. Not sure if he was being strategic or genuine, but either way, I don’t care.
Read MoreA simple geographic reminder to those overly insistent, overly-aggressive people of faith
When someone becomes overly insistent and overly aggressive about the truth behind their deeply held religious beliefs, I like to remind them that their deeply held religious beliefs are almost certainly predicated upon geography. For the vast majority of people, religious belief simply correlates to where they spent most of their childhood. It is not…
Read MoreListen to this.
I have heard few things more enlightening and moving than this. I think everyone should spend 20 minutes listening to this – children especially. Please listen and share with others. If you’re a podcast listener, this is episode 45 of the podcast Here Be Monsters.
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