As all my readers know, I am a dedicated storyteller by nature. I’m not sure why storytelling appeals to me so much, but it does. I like the creativity of the process, I like the expository nature of the process. I like the performative aspects of the process. And, since I like hearing a good story almost as much as I like telling a good story, I think its fair to say that I enjoy…
Comedy is on my mind today because we are planning to go see The Naked Gun, the Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson remake by Seth MacFarlane of the 1988 Leslie Nielsen classic by the same name. I watch a lot of Liam Neeson (who doesn’t?) and just saw several of his new thrillers recently, so when I saw the New York Times profile on him in this new comedic role where he puts his gravitas…
I’m on a United Airlines flight from Denver back home to San Diego and based on two United flights (to Denver and back), which are the first I’ve taken in some time, I have to say that United is not doing a great job in the customer service area. I normally fly Delta or Jet Blue and while I occasionally have problems in first class with them, its relatively rare. United doesn’t seem to be…
How do you weather a storm? You hunker down. “Hunkering down” means to settle in and prepare to wait out a difficult or challenging situation. It comes from the physical position of crouching or squatting down low for protection or stability. The phrase is used in several contexts. It is most commonly used in a weather-related context. Staying indoors and preparing for storms, hurricanes, blizzards, or other severe weather by stocking up on supplies and…
Cornell University, which has one of the most highly regarded food science programs in the United States, is our group’s school of choice, As I mentioned yesterday, six of us attended Cornell, my mother also attended and I was a member of the faculty for ten years as a Clinical Professor. Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences houses their Department of Food Science, which is indeed considered among the top food science programs globally.…
Today was more of a down time day than anything else. It’s a Monday and son-in-law John had to work and I had a trial prep call for my trial in mid-September. The purpose of these calls is to get my head back into the case after a three year hiatus. They want me to refamiliarize myself with the opinions and evidence used to create those opinions in my expert report. The understood balancing act…
There are 116,873 hotels & motels in the US as of 2025, an increase of 4.0% from 2024. Additionally, the U.S. has over 55,900 lodging properties, including over 33,000 small business properties, with about 40% of US hotels being independent rather than chain-affiliated. The United States also leads the world in Airbnb listings, boasting around 2.25 million active properties. This makes the U.S. by far the largest market for Airbnb globally. For context, France follows…
Gibberish refers to speech or writing that is meaningless, incomprehensible, or nonsensical. It’s language that sounds like it might mean something but actually doesn’t convey any real information or message. There is technical gibberish, which is when someone uses complex jargon or technical terms incorrectly or excessively, making their speech incomprehensible to others. Like throwing around buzzwords without substance. Then there is baby talk or developmental gibberish, which is babbling sounds infants make before they…
It’s Saturday morning here in the Rocky Mountain State and I woke up after a night of reasonably decent sleep. The Airbnb we are staying in has a master bedroom which Kim and I occupy on the main floor and then all the other bedrooms are one floor below. The benefit of being the patriarch of the family and the one who pays the bills is that I don’t have to fight for the best…
Marijuana usage has been a part of my consciousness ever since I was about fifteen. That was, after all, the peak of the hippie countercultural movement of the late 60s. For one reason or another, in my family, the impact fell very little on me or my oldest sister Kathy (we are only three years apart), but fell very heavily on my middle sister, Barbara. All of her friends were heavily into drugs where none…