A Doll Comes To Visit

You are a fifth-grade girl who comes home from school to find a doll on your front porch. The doll looks like you, is dressed like you, and there is something about the eyes. Who left it? Why is it here? And what makes this doll so special?

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With a Little Help From My Friend

Jim Jenkins is an ace detective who solves the most difficult crimes. Yet he always works alone. Or does he?

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The Boy Who Could Wiggle His Ears

Learning how to wiggle your ears is really hard. But you can do it if you keep trying. And if you learn to keep trying, no problem is too big. So if you can wiggle your ears, you can do anything!

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Why Are Some People Creeped By Dolls?

Something to think about for Halloween  —  Why do some people find dolls creepy? For example, in San Clemente, California in 2014, dolls began mysteriously appearing on the steps of houses.  Even more unusual, each bore a resemblance to a young girl living in that house.  The police traced the dolls to a local woman

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Spirit Week

This was Spirit Week at the local high school.  I had a substitute teaching job on Friday, and I got the full impact up close. Why this week?  Friday night was a football game with a neighboring suburb, their arch rivals.  Over the years, this rivalry has evolved into a higher purpose — it includes

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The Most Unusual Mammal

I have always considered the duckbill platypus to be the most unusual mammal.  It’s semi-aquatic, the only mammal to lay eggs, and resembles an animal designed by committee.  With a duck’s bill, a beaver’s tail, and an otter’s foot, some thought the early specimens were a hoax. But now I have read of an even

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No One Should Be Left Behind

The saddest outcome when we depart a country after a conflict is the people we leave behind.  It happened in Vietnam.  I know personally because I had a graduate-school classmate who was Vietnamese.  Somehow in the chaos of those final days the nuclear family got out (thanks largely to individual initiatives by some of my

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Do Animals Get Drunk?

I come from a non-drinking family, so I don’t know what it’s like to be drunk.  But apparently humans aren’t the only ones who come under the influence of behavior-altering drugs. There is a column in the October 24, 2016 issue of Time magazine (page 8) that gives four examples of under-the-influence animals. — Recently

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Do You Have a Second Brain?

There are some interesting ideas in this world (and a lot we still don’t know about ourselves), but this idea is so radical I’m almost afraid to write about it. There is a short video on YouTube entitled “You Have a Second Brain” that claims your digestive system acts as another brain and it has

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How Smart Is Your Dog?

Do you have a dog? Then you might be interested in a Yale University study that has shown that dogs are so smart, they will ignore your bad directions. In the study, a treat was placed inside a puzzle.  Solving the puzzle involved one step — lifting the lid — but the researchers added one

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Short Story — One Last Chance

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an original short story.  This was published on the Bewildering Stories website in issue #635 (http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue635/last_chance.html) It does contain a bit of adult language.     One Last Chance   Jake had been in nicer hospitals than this. His mother had passed away in a new facility, big and

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