Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
When The Press Hijacks Your Life
You may remember seeing the original headline — “First Female Gondolier”. After over 900 years, the canal-laced city of Venice, Italy could claim its first woman gondolier. Or could it? “What happens when doing what you want to do means giving up who you really are? … On the winding canals in the hidden parts of
What Causes Brain Freeze?
Life is full of everyday mysteries. Like why do you get a headache when you quickly eat something cold? Popularly called “brain freeze”, this condition is found in the International Classifications of Headache Disorders as an official type of headache. The key is introduction of any cold substance (think ice cream) behind the nose and
What Are The Greatest Modern Innovations?
A quick way to start an argument is to ask what were the most important innovations in human history. Lots of opinions have been published. I recently found an interesting take on this in the June 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine. In a short article entitled “Big Advances”, U.S. librarian of Congress Carla Hayden
What Is It Like Being a Slave?
I got one. Driving last weekend to see the solar eclipse (you may have heard about that), I happened to catch one of my favorite radio podcasts in real time, “This American Life” on NPR. If you’ve never listened, each hour-long program has a theme, divided into acts. This was Program 623: “We Are The
My Eclipse Day
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Studying the map for the August 21 total solar eclipse, I realize I was only about 300 miles from the path of totality (where the moon’s shadow completely covers the sun), or about a half day’s drive. I’d never seen a total eclipse before, so I
A Solution For Senior Housing?
As a senior citizen, I’m always concerned about my long-term future. How much longer will I be able to live by myself in a large house? (It had better be a very long time because you won’t believe the stuff I’ve accumulated over the years.) This is why I was intrigued by a TV news
The Latest From Thomas Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat, has a recent book with the unlikely title of Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. The world is changing quickly, too quickly for many people. Friedman identifies three major change agents — Moore’s law (the increase in
Food You Can Wear
We’ve been hearing a lot about sustainability and recycling as a way to conserve resources. How far could we take this if we put our minds to it? Pretty far. One of the more novel ideas I’ve heard regarding recycling the byproducts of food production comes from designer Sacha Laurin. Her career began as a
Mountain Climbing 101
For some reason, I can’t import any of my photos into this article. Photos are on my Facebook page. Several weeks after I’d signed up for my Africa trip, the travel agency called me. “Would you like to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro?” I thought that sounded like a real adventure. At my age, this would
The Dangers of the Albinism Trait
It’s hard to be an optimist when you keep uncovering horror stories about the human race. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by a species that once believed in witchcraft, but it still can be shocking. Recently while catching up on reading, I found an article entitled “The Perils of Pale” in the June 2017