I’ve been watching words I use everyday (more or less) gradually fall out of use during my life. This is fine; that’s how languages are. I’ve also watched the typical vocabulary go down over the same time span. Walter Cronkite used a far larger vocabulary than does even NPR these Read more…
“There’s nothing special about being old. It just takes a long time.” ~ Robert Heinlein (speaking as Lazarus Long) Our society worships youth to an absurd degree. Even when I was a “youth” (that is, enthusiastic and very dumb) I thought this was a pretty silly thing. I knew Read more…
Folks born since the end of the 1980’s have no idea (thank God!) what it was like living under the Cold War. Unfortunately, not too many who were there understood what was happening either, because they didn’t know any better, and because after a while it’s all just background noise. Read more…
So… here we are in a strange moment in history. One year ago, going around with your face covered would have gotten you stared at, approached by cops, etc. Today, not covering your face in public gets you stared at, ostracized, refused service. Heck… according to some news reports, even Read more…
Have you ever thanked your coffee pot for doing its job correctly? How about your house plant for being pretty? (You have house plants, right? You know, oxygen, color and life inside the house? Clean(er) air?) When did you last say a big Thank You to your Significant Other or Read more…
Once upon a time in America [which was a good movie, by the way, but unrelated here] folks had to go outside to the well or hand pump to fetch in a bucket of water for use in the house. This naturally, lead to a very conservative (in the real Read more…
We the People, in order to create a more perfect union… First two lines from the United States of America’s Constitution — the law of the land. Note: it says more perfect, acknowledging right there, right at the start, that a perfect form of government may be impossible, but can be striven Read more…