Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
How a Haircut Could Save Your Life
It’s one thing to achieve medical breakthroughs, but something else entirely to get people to adopt them. Sometimes people will only listen to someone they trust. Like their barber. That was Michael DeVore’s thinking when he founded Live Chair Health. He knew there was a high trust factor between barbers and their customers. He also
Words We Should Steal From Other Languages
The online publication Ethnologue reports that there are currently 7,151 living languages in the world, so it stands to reason that other languages would have words with no English equivalents. Occasionally I find examples of this, and today I’ve found more in “38 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent” by Bill DeMain on the Pocket
The Day I Delivered Justice
A summons for jury duty is always a surprise and usually unwelcome. In my lifetime, I have been called three previous times. In the first instance, I didn’t have to report. In the second, a settlement was announced just before jury selection began, and in the third, a civil lawsuit, I was not selected. But
The Other Escape Path From Slavery
Much as been made of the Underground Railroad, the overland network of paths that headed north and was utilized by escaping slaves for decades. But many don’t realize there were other paths to freedom. One of these was the so-called Saltwater Railroad, which ran south into Florida, following the coastal waterway. Recall that Florida was
From a Child, and a Thief, You Can Learn…
I ran across an interesting bit of philosophy from a source that’s new to me. It’s attributed to the Hasidic rabbi Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezeritch, as related in The Marginalian of August 24, 2022 — “3 Things to Learn From a Child, 7 From a Thief” (https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/08/24/bob-dylan-interview/). From a child you can learn
The Women Who Programmed the First Modern Computer
As a history nerd, one of my recurring interests is the parts of history that never make it into textbooks. You’ve probably heard of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race, as documented in the excellent book and movie Hidden Figures. Recently I found a story that is both similar in content
Traffic Deaths by Class and Race
You may have heard that traffic deaths are increasing. That is disturbing because since the early 1970s the trend has been down. That’s when cars became safer with seatbelt laws and crackdowns on drunk driving. Then came airbags and advanced technology to prevent accidents. Unfortunately, the death rate began to rise around 2015 when the
Why Great Ideas Come in the Shower
If you’ve ever had some of your best ideas while showering, it’s not an accident. There’s actually a scientific reason for it. Basically, any activity that can be done automatically frees your mind to be creative. This can be walking your dog, taking a shower, or anything that doesn’t require much thought. “People always get
Documenting the Golden Age of Animation
I’ve been a Disney fan for most of my life, and if anyone asks about what interests me most about Disneyana, I say “information.” I’m always looking for books and magazines with that theme. That’s why I was intrigued to find the book Wild Minds: The Artists and Rivalries that Inspired the Golden Age of
The Link Between Smell And Memories
Have you ever had a flood of memories triggered by a smell? If so, you are far from alone. There’s a reason for how smells can pull up specific memories, and it starts with the structure of the brain itself. Unlike sound, for example, which travels from our ears to the brainstem, then up to