“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” — G.K. Chesterton On Facebook, I recently posted an article from a major newspaper about how churches, after being so eager to reopen, are now a major source of COVID-19 cases. According the article, “More than 650
For anyone with privacy concerns, let me feed your paranoia, especially if you have a digital assistant. New research is showing that many everyday words and phrases in normal conversation can trigger your assistant, which means part of what you say can be sent to your device’s manufacturer. If you mention you’ve received “a letter,”
I will admit that being both a regular user of Facebook and a history nerd, plus having a policy of not unfriending anyone, does bring some excitement into one’s life. As such, I have been avidly following the discussions about Black Lives Matter, especially the counterargument that all lives matter. Yes, all lives certainly should.
Happy Disloyalty to Royalty Day! Time to reprise my poem about patriotism. I wrote it sometime around 2010 and posted it last year (and it’s in my book Some Poems About Life, available on this website), but I think it’s still apropos today. The Patriot Jerry is a patriot,he loves his country dear.He waves the flag
I was always taught to be honest. I would never think of lying to my parents. But it wasn’t until much later, when I was well into adulthood, that I finally realized my mother had a subtle way of bending the truth to adjust my behavior. Like saying ” _________ is talking about you because
Have you ever wondered why some items come in odd weights and sizes? In this photo from the Marketplace website, notice the Ziploc quart-size freezer bags are packaged 19 to a box. Why the odd number? I ran across this in an October 20, 2019 article entitled “The Marketing Tactics Behind Those Odd Weights and
The English language is very dynamic. Words are constantly being added and meanings change. I saw another reminder of this recently in an article entitled “25 Words That Don’t Mean What They Used To” by Paul Anthony Jones. It’s quite a surprising list. Here are some of the words that jumped out at me —
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our world upside down, especially with regard to sports. The NBA is scrambling to finish its season with a 22-team playoff scenario at Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex, major league baseball is trying to salvage something with a 60-game schedule, and there is no telling what the
Many of our everyday practices have surprising origins. For example, the idea of serving a three-course meal — soup, main dish, and dessert — is actually credited to a Persian (some say Arab or Kurd) known to history as Ziryab. His full name is Abu l-Hasan Ali Ibn Nafi, and he was an educated North
The nice folks at BewilderingStories.com have published another of my stories! As they describe it — The latest tracking device tells a soldier which desserts will shorten his life, and by how much. But what if the device knows more than that? And what to do when the readout goes to zero? Bob Welbaum, When Your Number