The Royal Bot You may not have noticed it, but the world has changed. As you know, I teach an ethics course, so I think about the issue of what are the fundamental causes of ethical dilemmas. I started my list with the overwhelming cause of all ethical stuff, which is filthy lucre, money, do-re-me. You know that I’ve expanded the list well beyond just that, but let’s take a moment to consider money as…
Apocalyptic New Year Auld Lang Syne is one of those songs that we all know (sort of) and sing at the passing of things like the old to new year, but few of us have a clue as to what it means and what the song is really about. The song is about 250 years old and was a rewrite of an old Scottish folk song, done by the long-time national poet laureate of Scotland,…
Babylon Revisited After two days of raucous holiday festivities on the hilltop (22 in attendance on Christmas Eve and 14 in attendance on Christmas Day), by late afternoon we were ready to crash hard as the day wound down and the travelers hit the road for points known and unknown. We were left with Tom and Jenna and Kim and I with the added knowledge that Tom and Jenna would be leaving in the morning…
Leaving My Wingman As the sun comes up in the east and I can feel that graininess in my eyeballs that comes from insufficient sleep, I am comforted in knowing that at the other end of my house on the hilltop, my little baby boy (Thomas) is fast asleep with his fiancé, Jenna. How they got there only several hours ago is a story of holiday travel 2022 that I feel may be worth sharing.…
The Warmth of the Season Today it is 70 degrees warmer here on the hilltop than it is in frigid New York City. I got a Snapchat this morning from my daughter, who lives in Brooklyn that had her dog, Abe, running around their place with a knit Santa suit on. The video stated that it was 8 degrees, implying that Abe was lucky to be clad to stay warm. Meanwhile, back here on the…
Starry Starry Night Last night we had the pleasure of going to what is called the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. To begin with, Ernest Rady is a self-made philanthropist who has given away billions of dollars mostly to help sick children, but also to enhance his adopted home of San Diego. The Rady Shell is a acoustical marvel and is a outdoor bandshell sitting on a spit of land adjacent to the San Diego…
Top of the Wall Everywhere I look these days, I am seeing articles about one of two issues: homelessness in America and the crisis and the U.S. border with Mexico. It is sometimes hard to reconcile the two issues. On the one hand people from all over the world, especially Central America are finding the conditions in their countries intolerable and abuse for risking life and limb to get to the U.S. border to seek…
The Quantum of Life I have written in the past about string theory and ring theory, but doubt I could give you an elevator pitch on either. I think I am a reasonably intelligent guy, and I’m certainly well-educated by most standards. Nonetheless, I know a fair bit about my limits. I hit some of those limits ( a funny mathematical pun which gets me right to my “limit” when it comes to mathematics) as…
Wandering Through Caracas I spent my first four years of life in Caracas. I don’t think I really remember anything from Caracas even though I have a few mental images that could be a genuine recollection. Then I find an old black and white picture from those early days in Caracas and I realize that what I thought was a memory might have really been nothing more than my having seen the old photo. And…
The Enchanted Village Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and Kim gotta sing. Now that we live out here, Kim is singing with a choral ensemble called Encore. Technically they only have two big shows each year and one of those was last month in La Jolla, where she gave the Eleventh Hour solo, which was a big hit. Here we are a month later and Kim has volunteered with the group to sing in…