Catch-22 I watched the Mike Nichols movie based on Joseph Heller’s dark WWII comedy about a bombardier off the coast of Italy doing everything he can think of to get sent home. Catch-22, the novel, was first published in 1961 and made into a movie in 1970. The story of its title deserves to be told as a prequel to its absurd comedic tone. The concept of the rule “catch” of a paradoxical situation…
The Message of Flight On Friday we will fly out to San Diego for a five-day escape to our home out there. Ever since we bought the house seven years ago, whenever I fly out, I feel like I am, indeed, escaping reality. When we land at the gorgeous and efficient San Diego International Airport, formerly Lindbergh Field, we are picked up by our brother and sister-in-law in our Tesla X and we go…
Anticipation Do you remember those ketchup commercials that wanted to highlight the thickness of their product? It was for Heinz ketchup, the Hertz Rent-a-car of the ketchup world. The music of Carly Simon played loudly with her slightly altered lyrics (which I believe she herself sang) made the ketchup people’s point. “Anticipation. Is makin’ me late. Is keepin’ me waitin’!” This 3:16 song was written, as most songs, it seems, as a love song. …
Not Just a Hat Rack Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen was an American actress, singer, dancer and comedian who was known as Gracie Allen and was married to George Burns, the actor and comedian. The Burns and Allen Show ran for years on both radio and television with Burns being the straight man to Allen’s hair-brained female routine. We all remember the way their show always ended, “Say Goodnight, Gracie.” What we may not…
Inventions Management For the first time in my life I am getting a front row seat at the process of inventions management. My company is trying to innovate in the electrochemical arena which involves everything from filing patents with the U.S. Patent Office and the various international patent agencies to managing the process of commercialization of the inventions, taking them from the laboratory to the marketplace. As one would imagine, there is a lot…
Crying About Death We have some dramatic things going on that give me pause and make me think. I just watched a clip of presidential candidate Andrew Yang (a marginal candidate who has gotten some exposure lately, but who is far from a central or likely candidate who could be nominated to the Democratic ticket). He had talked with a woman whose child had watched her sibling get shot and killed in El Paso. …
Fading Glory In June of 1996 I was driving to the Tompkins County Airport on Warren Road, in Ithaca, when I spotted a For Sale sign on a house that was opposite the 17th green of the Cornell Golf Course. I noted the broker telephone number as I passed, and on a whim I called to see what the old derelict farmhouse was on the market for. This was before the era of Zillow and…
Country Life John Denver said, “Well life on the farm is kinda laid back, Ain’t much an old country boy like me can’t hack. It’s early to rise, early in the sack. Thank God I’m a country boy.” No one would ever mistake me for a country boy. But I’m no metrosexual smooth dude either. I never grew up in the suburbs. I’m worldly and global, but not very Latino or Italian (those being the…
Owning it All I was worried about having time to write my blog this weekend. We are in Ithaca staying at our house there, with my daughter and her husband and kids. Their Ithaca life is heavily dominated by the pool, the yard and fireflies at dusk (as it should be) and my weekend is dominated by seeing old acquaintances from college. These are not my usual classmate crowd that I lived with for most…
Tucker, Tucker, Tucker… White Supremacy is quickly becoming an oxymoron. And it’s the likes of the suddenly vacationing Fox commentator (who really really was planning a vacation just then, really, just like all the guys at Fox who used to be there) who is making it more moronic and more embarrassing for those of us with oxy (occidental) heritage. Hatred and fear are ever-present in the world, so that should not surprise us. What is…