When I was in the publishing business, one of my first projects was editing a collectors’ price guide entitled Garage Sale Gold: Leading Experts Pick the Most Valuable Collectibles of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. One of the 52 categories was Pinback Buttons, with the subgroup Presidential Campaign Buttons. Yes, campaign buttons are highly
It’s been said that you could lay all the economists in the world end to end and still not reach a consensus. That’s why some call economics the Dismal Science. One thing I’ve realized from my worldly travels is we’re all in this together. We now live in a global economy which interconnects all the
When you’re planning a camping trip and buy a bear-resistant cooler, how do you know it’s really bear resistant? It is if it’s been tested by a bear. Yes, bears really do test the products. Take the case of a grizzly bear mother and her three cubs that were serious problems, feasting on a rancher’s
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has gone to 85-year-old Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a human-rights lawyer and international judge from South Africa, for her contributions in international law (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/press-release/). As this nation approaches another consequential election, I thought it appropriate to reprint some of her reaction as reported by The Christian Science Monitor. “Let me dedicate this
It’s not easy being a writer. Plots have to be imagined, then characters, settings and situations all have to be created, and the words themselves have to be right. Everyone has at least one story to tell. But there’s one thing writers shouldn’t have to worry about. That is censorship. It’s hard enough to create
Scientists studying the upper atmosphere have found some unsettling facts. They expected to find traces of elements left by meteroids burning up as they entered Earth’s airspace. Instead, they found surprisingly large amounts of elements like lithium, copper and even lead. There was only one explanation — those substances were deposited by space debris like
My favorite law is the Law of Unintended Consequences. With a consequential election coming up, I’ve found another reminder of the importance of keeping up with current events, researching candidates, and then critically examining the statements they make. My inspiration this time is an article in The Atlantic magazine entitled “The Jews Who Voted for
There are certain rules we are taught to live by, like “Always keep your promises.” But what if you shouldn’t? Google this and you get “Promises you shouldn’t keep are vows or commitments that require you to do something harmful, illegal, unethical, or unsafe.” Okay, I get the “harmful, illegal, unethical, or unsafe” part, but
If you frequent social media, you’ve probably seen discussions about converting land into solar farms. Often these involve taking prime farmland out of production. I have a unique perspective on this, because our family farm is within a few miles of a utility substation and we have gotten multiple lucrative offers to lease our land
Have you ever heard of the Ig Nobel Prizes? Yes, they are satirical, having been established in 1991 by Marc Abrahams and the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, but they are real and taken very seriously in some quarters. According to the Improbable Research website, “The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements so surprising