Have you ever wondered why Snow White met seven dwarfs? Not six, not eight— exactly seven. Why do we speak of Seven Wonders of the World—perhaps there should be nine? Marilyn Monroe even starred in The Seven Year Itch. Have you ever wondered why England celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne on the fiftieth...
More than a quarter million Bangladeshis were killed by a typhoon in November 1970. Horrifying! But wait, twice that number of Americans were killed by an influenza virus in 1918. In the summer of 1995 excessive heat killed over 700 Americans while in the same year severe cold or hypothermia killed more than 2,000. I...
It’s hardly surprising that increasing numbers of women loathe men and detest masculinity. After all, most of their experiences with men have been only with cads, scoundrels, rogues and rakes. They have been exploited by clowns, abused by creeps, corrupted by crooks and debased by cranks. Only a diminishing minority of women have enjoyed the...
Countless people will soon be observing a Passover Seder. There are many important aspects to running an effective Seder, but perhaps the most important and the least known is that the Seder, meaning order, is an arrangement of fifteen indispensable steps from start to finish. In order to explain this to you, I must first...
In case you are contemplating a career change, I want to suggest becoming a ‘futurist’ (i.e. a secular prophet). It is not as hard as it may seem. You boldly announce provocative predictions. If they subsequently come to pass, you triumphantly proclaim your prescience. If they don’t, you make new predictions. Consider one of the...
Internet giant, Amazon, is famous for its frugality. This means cheap desks cobbled together from wooden doors and scraps of lumber. It also means main cabin air travel, even for senior executives, on long flights. This corporate parsimony didn’t suddenly appear from nowhere. Although he was already a senior vice president at a successful hedge...
This morning, Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel delivered a historic address to the Congress of the United States of America. He alluded to the face of Moses staring down upon the chamber but neglected to mention that Moses is the only face depicted full-on rather than in profile. Moses enjoys special placement in America’s...
Have you ever found yourself entranced by the video game, Angry Birds? You might have thought that the stock of the company, Rovio, that started with the launch of that strangely addictive activity would be soaring as high as its colorful avian projectiles. Not so; in fact it never came up with any subsequent games...
Has one of your children ever approached you with a long litany of complaints? Your offspring begins detailing his grievances, some of them more perceived than real. You gently interrupt to contradict the mistakes. Perhaps it’s a friend or professional associate. The instinct to defend ourselves against what we feel is an illegitimate allegation is...
Around the world, Jews greet the holiday of Chanukah by lighting one flame. On each successive night of this eight-day festival we add one additional flame, culminating on the eighth night with a fully lit eight-flame menorah. Among the miracles commemorated by Chanukah is that God made a tiny quantity of consecrated oil last for...
