These past six months, since COVID-19 has dominated the headlines (with no end in sight), we have been called on to adjust, revise and improvise in both our personal and professional lives. Thinking outside the box, hatching new ideas and implementing them has become a necessary tool for survival. Fortunately, there is no shortage of …
Science doesn’t lie—some scientists do. Up till the 1970s, California was building, cleaning, and maintaining fire breaks around residential communities in forested areas. Fire roads were bulldozed and kept usable for large firefighting equipment. This provided rapid access allowing fires to be fought while they were still small. Going back to Spanish times, controlled burning, …
In dozens of cities around the world, as darkness descends, barbarians emerge to enjoy their orgies of plunder and destruction. As if intoxicated by the absence of defenders, they are unable fully to comprehend that nobody is defying them. I think of you, my readers, as noble knights defending the fortress of civilization against the …
Why is it that people who excessively indulge their physical appetites for food, sex, or material goods, to the point we could call it an addiction, often yield to many other temptations as well? Shakespeare’s character Sir John Falstaff highlights this very truth. Not only is Falstaff a glutton and a drunkard but he is …
Have you ever attended a company’s annual shareholder meeting? A couple’s fortieth wedding anniversary? A school graduation? A president’s inauguration? These occasions share pomp, ceremony, and ceremonial structure that go way beyond their utilitarian function. The music, the way people are dressed and the formal proceedings all help to conjure an atmosphere of unforgettable significance. …
I know a lawyer who really wishes that he was a rabbi. I also know a rabbi who really wishes he was a doctor. Have you met the plumber who really wishes he was a poet or the bookkeeper who really wishes she was a ballerina? The lawyer is doing nothing to change his profession …
I tossed a coin a hundred times. One of these results is real and one I just made up. Which is which? A: I got 48 heads, 49 tails, and 3 landed on their edge and remaining balanced upright. B: I got 49 heads and 51 tails. If you chose ‘A’ you probably have a …
Neil Sedaka’s song “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” hit number one on Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 in the summer of 1962. And as all who’ve loved and lost know, it is hard to do. But if you are in the wrong relationship, you must do it if you are ever to move on and …
When will things return to normal? That question got your attention, didn’t it? Internet search engines report that this may be the most asked question during the first half of 2020. This popular question was also asked (although not on the Internet) after President Lincoln signed into law the first income tax in 1862. It …
The inflamed mob filled the area surrounding the despised statue. After flinging dozens of ropes over it, the crowd heaved and down came that hated symbol of repression. The happy horde celebrated. I was unable to be there to witness this historic first toppling of an American statue because it happened on July 9th, 1776. …
