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Worst Halloween treat ever

When I was a kid, a woman living on our street gave out plastic bags of Chex mix on Halloween. Even though we knew that it would be Chex mix, we stopped at the house every year for the same reason that some people slow down when driving by car accidents. Bearing witness to the…

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Catholics should be able to scatter their ashes wherever they damn well please.

My wife once said that amongst the many noble reasons that I became a teacher, it was also because I don’t like to be told what to do. This has never occurred to me before, but she’s probably right. Teachers spend most of their day deciding how and when and what they will do. There…

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My new TV gig

Tomorrow Seasons Up Close, a news program from the publishers of Seasons magazine, debuts on channel 3 at 11:30 in the Hartford market. This will also mark my television debut. Much like my role in the magazine, I will be doing the final segment of the show (and future shows), which will be a short bit…

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Be happy for the good fortune of others. It’s a happier and more productive way to live.

One of the saddest and most inexplicable things that I see in this world is the inability to be happy for the good fortune of others.   Sometimes it’s a large bit of good fortune. A friend’s early retirement. A sister-in-law’s pregnancy. A colleague’s promotion. A friend’s wedding proposal.  But more often, it’s the small…

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Collaboration is great. Right?

I teach my students to collaborate. I believe that collaboration is a good and useful and a productive means of getting things done. It’s good for people and the world and all of humankind. And yet… doesn’t this also seem ABSOLUTELY TRUE? 

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Put stuff on the Internet and watch what happens

You should write. Regardless of your self-perceived skill or experience, you should absolutely write stuff and stick it on the Internet. This is what I have been doing for more than a decade. Every single day since 2005 – without exception, I have posted a thought or an idea or an observation to the Internet…

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Why should I experience unnecessary minor pain? Because I choose not to be soft.

In a piece entitled Pain Is Silly! Be Prepared With Your Own Mini-Pharmacy, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern writes: “I live in the 21st century. Why should I have to experience minor pain? The miraculous pharmaceutical developments of our age have created a treatment for virtually every ache and malady. The vagaries of our regulatory system allow…

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Wardrobe malfunction

Charlie: Dad, you took off my pajamas, and then you put on other pajamas. Me: Those are pajamas? Charlie: Where’s Mom?

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