Today is a day of protest. I am very aware of how often I write political stories on my blog. I know that for the three weeks I was traveling, I hardly wrote anything political as I was engaged in my travel experience. But now I am back here not traveling and faced with the realities of life in these United States in times unlike any we have seen since the 60s. I was too…
Since I bothered to write about my edema problem a few days ago, I thought a quick update might be in order. My sister, Barbara is already concerned enough to have called and texted me and I suspect I am just a step away from having nursing home materials sent to me by her. It’s nice to have people be concerned about your well-being, but I will remind everyone that most of us overthink our…
War exists due to a complex interplay of factors that have persisted throughout human history. At its core, war often emerges from competition over scarce resources – whether that’s territory, water, oil, or fertile land. When groups believe they need these resources to survive or thrive, and peaceful negotiation fails, conflict can escalate to violence. Power dynamics play a crucial role too. Leaders may use war to maintain or expand their authority, rally domestic support,…
Yes, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys died at age 82 after a life of brilliant song writing and multiple bouts with drug abuse and mental illness. Brian Wilson was absolutely brilliant – one of the true geniuses of popular music. He was the creative mastermind behind The Beach Boys’ sound, writing and arranging those incredible harmonies and melodies that defined the California sound of the ’60s. His work on Pet Sounds (Rolling Stone considers…
This feels like an unusual week for me. It’s probably most unusual because it’s a transition week for us, just getting back to our normal hilltop life. First of all, it’s early June, which means that we have an overabundance of June Gloom in the morning. That’s the marine layer that comes in from the ocean and creates a fog layer up here that burns off somewhere between 10am and early afternoon, depending on how…
I’ve heard the term dropsy for many years, but like so many things you hear, unless you have a reason for figuring out what it means, you tend to ignore it. So I ignored dropsy, figuring it was something akin to the vapors or vertigo and it certainly didn’t affect me. Well, now I have learned that dropsy is an old medical term for what we now call edema – the abnormal accumulation of fluid…
The expression “beating a dead horse” has its origins in the mid-19th century. The expression “beating a dead horse” (or “flogging a dead horse” in British English) dates back to a time when the phrase is said to have been popularized by English politician John Bright. In March 1859, during a House of Commons debate about parliamentary reform, Lord Elcho remarked that Bright had not been satisfied with his “winter campaign” and that Bright had…
If you Google or AI the word “Gubins”, it will tell you that it must be a proper noun or slang since there is no known definition in any recognizable language. I like the sound of that. I have been using the name Gubins for my dear and yet-to-be-able-to-reason charges. That means my kids, my grandkids and now, Buddy. For some reason, I have always found calling some little irrational beast a Gubins suited the…
Right now I’m sitting in the foyer of Sage Hall on the Cornell campus. Sage Hall holds a lot of meaning for me for several reasons. To begin with I was part of the Advisory Council of the business school that decided that the business school should be relocated from Mallot Hall, where I went to the school, to Sage Hall, which is at the center of the Cornell campus. Sage Hall at Cornell University…