Today’s post is a nod to George Carlin, the brilliant recently-deceased comedian. Two days ago in New York state (black Friday, November 28, 2008) a Walmart employee was killed when a mob crashed through the doors of the Long Island store in a rush to start that days holiday shopping. Here is a partial account [...]

Does packaging ever frustrate you? It seems like it could be done better. So many items are, well, nearly out of reach. Or at least beyond easy accessibility. Or just poorly executed. I consider myself a fairly strong guy. I have big hands, and I can tell you that I sometimes need all that strength [...]

I think the single-most threatening thing to our democracy is increasing irascibility and incivility in our public discourse. The talk radio nabobs spread this coarseness daily, and inquiring minds who want to know- but can’t quite think on their own- repeat the nonsense. Half-truths, rumors, out-of-context stories and plain old piffle gets tossed around as [...]

They aren’t really things, just ideas. And they cost nothing. Perhaps that’s what they are worth. Anyway, here goes: 1. It was interesting to listen to international reaction to the election of Barack Obama. One thing of note was hearing South African cleric Desmond Tutu’s statement that he thought it was a good idea for [...]

I am not sure why, but I like to banter with service people I encounter. Clerks, waitresses, the check-out person at the grocery store- these are all folks that I often strike up a conversation with. I guess most people are reticent to do this. I don’t know why. I think it livens things up [...]

This is my most lightweight post to date, but I must weigh in on this issue. See, I love football. But I need to rant. Again. I played quite a lot when I was young. And now I enjoy watching it, although not nearly as much as I used to watch. The problem with today’s [...]

They are: Burn after Reading and Religulous. Burn After Reading” by the Coen brothers is an excellent movie. I think it is accurate to say that the movie is basically about human stupidity, and some people’s exaggerated sense of self-importance A few days later I went to Bill Maher’s movie “Religulous.” It is also excellent, [...]