Author Archives: Bob Welbaum

How To Sell A Car

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be car salesmen. Okay, that’s not how the original song lyrics went.  But that’s what I thought of while listening to a podcast from National Public Radio’s This American Life.  This episode is entitled “129 Cars” and originally aired December 13, 2013; it was recently rebroadcast. “We

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Honoring Childhood Victims Of Cancer

In 2009, Rik Zortman lost his three-year-old son Armstrong to brain cancer.  How can you honor a child who dies so young? As a 44-year-old runner from Avoca, Iowa, Rik thought of a novel way — he would trace his son’s name in the streets during his next run.  “Armstrong” appeared on September 1st, beginning

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Happy Birthday Charles de Gaulle

On November 22, 1890, Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France.  He is best known for leading Free France against the Nazi occupation in World War II, then becoming the symbol of post-war France by organizing the Fifth Republic in 1958 and serving as president until 1969.  He was also a decorated officer in

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Have You Heard About Zipper Merge?

When you are driving and come to a construction zone that requires traffic to merge out of a lane, what do you do? I usually merge into the first available open space.  Frankly, it’s always bothered me when people speed down the soon-to-be-closed lane despite the signage, then merge at the last possible minute.  That

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Bill Gates Meet Walt Disney

A couple of days ago, I heard on the radio that Bill Gates is planning to build a futuristic community.   As soon as I arrived home, I started researching.  According to the article “Bill Gates Invests $80 Million to Build Arizona Smart City” by Matt McFarland (http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/13/technology/future/bill-gates-smart-city-arizona/index.html), it sounds wonderful  — The community in Belmont

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On Trees and Relationships

I have a ginkgo tree in my front yard.  It was not my doing; it came with the house.  If you’re not familiar with this type, it’s sometimes referred to as the maidenhair tree.  The only surviving species in the division Ginkgophyta, it goes back at least 270 million years (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba).  The probable reason there is

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How Not To Cook A Turkey

Of all the Founding Fathers, I think the most fascinating is Benjamin Franklin.  He was our first humorist, and in his day the best writer in the Colonies.  He was also an inquisitive scientist, perhaps best known for his experiments with electricity.  But recently I ran across a Ben Franklin story that I’m sure he

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Happy Birthday — Numbered Highways

On November 11, 2016, this country started something we take for granted every day — it established a highway numbering system.  This was described so well by an entry in The Writer’s Almanac that I’m just going to quote it verbatim —   In the early days of automobile travel, the federal government wasn’t involved

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