Kids, don’t try this at home, but an experienced adult with nerves of steel can quickly whip out a tablecloth from beneath expensive china place settings without doing any damage. He would be relying on Newton’s first law of motion which says that objects tend to keep doing whatever they were doing. If they are...
A reader chided me the other week for writing too often about politics. He prefers to read about family events, holidays and the like. His perspective is shared by others, and I know that I have lost readers who are either bored with hearing about the coming election or whose political views differ from mine....
What do you do when you realize, years after the fact, that you gave bad advice to someone? What if it wasn’t only one person, but many? What if you gave the advice in a book or article and have no idea how to find the people who took your advice? If you are a...
As the year 5773 comes into view, arriving this coming Sunday night, I’d like to wish all of you a year filled with peace, health, prosperity and joy. Four years ago, Barack Obama excited huge numbers of Americans, precipitating an emotional reaction among many. Media swooning and malfeasance meant that most Americans were never exposed...
When the hubbub of conversation around our Shabbat table occasionally lags, I sometimes delight my children with a ‘magic’ trick. I am not a particularly talented prestidigitator but my family makes a gracious audience and besides, I do practice the illusions in private before presenting them to the table. Here’s one that never fails to...
