I remember when I was a student teacher and I asked a class to tell me what they knew about the Persians. My cooperating teacher quickly informed me they had never studied that civilization. I thought of this as I reviewed an email from the National Geographic Society listing some long-forgotten civilizations. There have been
Anyone who has ever had a bug zapper has seen insects fly right into it. Insects naturally seem to be attracted to light. Why? Actually, no one knows, but there are several theories. One is that they aren’t as much attracted to light as they are disoriented by it. Many flying insects use light as
This morning I read on my news feed that President Trump says he has an “absolute right” to declare a national emergency. Someone has beaten him to it. Actually, we’re already in emergency status. In fact, we’ve been in a national emergency since 1979, and the idea goes back much further than that. You may
If you ever look heavenward, you know that people have found pictures in the stars for thousands of years. I think most of us can recognize a few, like Orion the Hunter, with his three-star belt, and the Big Dipper (actually part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear). But I hadn’t realized how many constellations
As #MeToo is proving, women are becoming empowered all over the world. I have just read of another example, this time in Africa. Although I hesitate to repeat this for fear of publicizing radical ideas, this story is too good to ignore. So here goes (and I’ll start with a direct quote, so nobody thinks
With all the talk about border walls, this weekend I heard a story that sounded like something from Lewis Carroll (You know, Alice in Wonderland). Talk to a North Korean official and hear the lament about The Concrete Wall. Standing 5-8 meters high and 10-19 meters thick, with military positions, it was built by South
For those of you who think the American Dream is dead, I have good news. The most successful ethnic group in the country very well may be Nigerian-Americans. As more recent arrivals, their numbers are not large; in 2015 the Nigerian-American population was 376,000, according to the Rockefeller Foundation–Aspen Institute. And they’ve had to battle
I felt like it was about time for another poem, so I dug this one out of my files. This is the first time it’s been shared. What Humans Do An ash tree was dying in the front yard, victimized by the ash borer. I paid good money to a tree service to chop
The issue of Confederate monuments was such a hot topic in the recent past that an article in the December 2018 Smithsonian magazine couldn’t help but get my attention. Entitled “The Costs of the Confederacy” by Brian Palmer and Seth Freed Wessler, it claims that taxpayers have spent at least $40 million on Confederate monuments
From my younger days, I still remember watching how an animated character was courting his girlfriend on a Saturday morning cartoon show. He had composed a love song — I love you, Stella. I think you’re swella. Sure glad you’re not a fella. Terrible! No wonder he was still single! Then it dawned on me.
