Archive for April 2021

In case you haven’t heard, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter became the first powered vehicle to take flight on another planet when it ascended from the Martian soil yesterday. It flew for about 30 seconds before landing safely. I think it’s important to remember that just 118 years ago, the Wright Brothers became the first humans on…

I’m done with beautiful packaging. Last week, I listened to a podcast host talk about Lord Jones: “The world’s finest CBD products. You’ll get to see their products and their beautiful packaging…” Beautiful packaging? I hear people speak about Apple’s packaging the same lofty way, as if the 22 seconds that I spend opening my…

I don’t like Mad Libs. As a kid, I remember one of my middle school teachers first introducing me to the concept. During lunch (which was eaten in our classroom), she decided to use Mad Libs to quiet her otherwise raucous class and soothe the savage beasts. “Give me an adjective! Now a verb! Now…

Louis Vuitton’s latest handbag collection includes airplane-shaped bag that costs more than an actual airplane: $39,000. You can purchase a Cessna 150 for about $30,000, making this handbag more expensive the flying machine that inspired its design. Seems ridiculous, of course, but as you probably know, the entire handbag industry is a damn joke. A…

I’ve always known that my father-in-law was a very good photographer, but I think he missed his calling.

When I was in third grade, my mother and I visited my school one evening to select my musical instrument   Music in Blackstone, Massachusetts, where I grew up, was a big deal.   Everyone played an instrument.    Instruments were displayed on tables throughout the cafeteria. Parents and students were invited to visit each…

Around 6:00 yesterday morning, our newly installed carbon monoxide detector began beeping. We had work done on our furnace the day before, plus we had a new carbon monoxide detector installed at the same time, so I wasn’t sure if the problem was carbon monoxide or a faulty detector. So after some hemming and hawing,…

The new Gallup poll, published last week, indicates that religious membership in the United States has fallen to just 47% among those surveyed — representing less than half of the adult population for the first time since Gallup began asking the question more than 80 years ago. For the first time in our history, fewer than…

I’m reading the Harry Potter series to Elysha and the kids. We’re enjoying it very much. One of our favourite parts of the day. See what I did there? But quidditch – the game played by Harry Potter and others on broomsticks – is stupid. Two things make this game stupid: First, the scoring is…

There is a short cross street in my neighborhood that connects two infrequently traveled longer streets. It’s just a couple hundred yards long. A total of eight houses on the street in all. For the last two years, the owners of one of those homes has been trying to sell a canoe. At times the…