My daily writing generally has a flow based on what is going on in the world around me that most affects me on any given day. I have no quarrel with that approach since I long ago decided that I write for my own reasons and am decidedly not grinding any sort of axe with these blog stories. That said, anyone who knows me knows that I am a man of many opinions and am…
Kim and I find ourselves talking about our toy poodle, Buddy, with people who have come over for the first time and just met him, invoking a somewhat apologetic manner since Buddy can be a bit of a handful. We find ourselves saying that when we got him two years ago he was much worse and that he has really mellowed out over that time. Clearly, Buddy is getting more mature and is now a…
Kindness appears to emerge from multiple interconnected sources, both biological and cultural. From an evolutionary perspective, kindness likely developed because cooperation and mutual aid increased survival chances for our ancestors. We see similar prosocial behaviors across many species – empathy, reciprocal altruism, and care for group members. Our brains seem wired with capacity for empathy through mirror neurons and emotional contagion, allowing us to feel something of what others experience. There’s also a developmental dimension.…
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.…
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…
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…
I am sitting here in my garden on my hilltop in the middle of summer of my 71st year. I can hear some distant traffic noises but mostly I’m in the quiet of the garden with all sorts of birds chirping and singing and generally going about their morning routines. I have come down to the lower garden with my vinegar sprayer to beat back the incessant arrival of weeds. It’s what I would call…
I am two days away from going to San Diego Airport to pick up my daughter Carolyn, her husband, John, and our two granddaughters, Charlotte and Evelyn. They will be with us out here on the hilltop for the month of July, as they have for the two prior summers. The trauma of my separation from my property on the edge of the Cornell campus (a tale of woe I have long since explained and…
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…