Author Archives: Bob Welbaum

Dental Giants

Next to dinosaurs, the saber-tooth tigers are the probably the most interesting prehistoric creatures.  I found some facts about them in the October 2015 issue of Smithsonian magazine. Young tigers grew their trademark fangs at the rate of six millimeters a month, almost twice as fast as human fignernails.  But it still took at least

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The Political Impact of Watergate

During a recent trip I read Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate by Bob Woodward, the reporter who was instrumental in investigating the original Watergate scandal under President Nixon.  This book analyzes the impact of that scandal on Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Clinton. Of course, we should demand the

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Some Thoughts About Berlin

Did anyone miss me?  I have been traveling for two weeks — to Berlin, Germany to run a marathon and on the Los Angeles for a Disneyana Fan Club special event.  I didn’t mention this beforehand because I don’t like to publicize my travel plans.  I’m going to share most of my travel stories on

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Thank You, Bewildering Stories

The nice people at BewilderingStories.com have included my story “One Last Chance” in their 2015 Third Quarterly Review. It’s included in the “Order of the Hot Potato” which I consider an honor and means discussions are welcome. http://www.bewilderingstories.com/anthol…/625-636_antho.html

How I Started Running

I have written several times about the sport of running and my relationship to it.  Today I ran the Air Force Half Marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB for the fourth time, so I decided to reprint a piece on how I started running that I wrote for the Disneyana Fan Club’s Disneyana Dispatch Newsletter.   This

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From the Teaching Front Lines

I haven’t been substitute teaching as much this year, usually a day or two a week, but I still enjoy it.  Of course, some days are more rewarding than others. Today, for example, I was working with special-needs students.  These jobs are always interesting.  I can remember when I was studying to be a teacher and

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Happy Birthday to Airmail

As an Air Force veteran, I always like to keep up on aviation milestones, and September 8, 1920, was when transcontinental airmail service began.  From The Writer’s Almanac: The Wright Brothers had made their first flight in 1903, but it took a while for them to convince the U.S. government that airplanes were a technology worth

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My Super Bowl

I have always been reasonably athletic, but in kind of an awkward way.  I could make teams, and usually play, but I was never good enough to get any real recognition.  Then I found a sport which seems to fit my personality — running.  It’s honest — you get out exactly what you put in, and

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