Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
Still Available: The Boy Who Could Wiggle His Ears
When I was about ten years old, my grandfather showed me how to wiggle my ears. It took some time to figure out how to control that muscle (it actually goes from the eyebrows back), and they don’t wiggle very much, but they do move. This always seemed like a good life example — if
Some Thoughts on New Year’s Eve
From the New York Times’ newsfeed — Have you ever wondered why that iconic New York City landmark is called Times Square? Originally Longacre Square, the name was changed in 1904 to honor The New York Times moving its offices there. The newspaper’s publisher during that era, Adolph Ochs, celebrated the move by staging a
Fish That Are Bad Swimmers
I’m sure you’ve heard of some people being described as “swimming like a fish.” It might surprise you to learn that some fish don’t swim well at all. Why would some fish be poor swimmers? The simple answer is they don’t need to swim well. For example, if the pufferfish (also called blowfish) is chased, it
A Way to Live Longer?
About 20 years ago, author Dan Buettner, working for National Geographic and with a grant from the National Institute on Aging, started studying the world’s longest-lived people. They’re the ones who reside in the so-called Blue Zones of longevity. Basically, his goal was to reverse-engineer longevity. Since an estimated 20% of a person’s life span is
The Emancipation Blueprint
Many slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, knew slavery was wrong, they just didn’t know how to move beyond it. As Jefferson wrote in 1820, “As it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in
How Many Emotions Do You Have?
In the 2015 Pixar animated feature Inside Out, Riley had five emotions — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Cute, but is that all? How many emotions do we really have? According to “The Benefits of Emodiversity” by David Brooks in The Atlantic (www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/benefits-emotional-diversity/620629/?), there are more. A lot more. For example, the Japanese have age-otori,
“Don’t Choose Extinction”
Of all the messages about climate change, perhaps the most original is the dinosaur who addresses the United Nations. Yes, in a recent YouTube video, a dinosaur walks into the UN’s General Assembly and delivers an impassioned speech to stunned delegates. The bottom line: Don’t choose extinction. “I know a thing or two about extinction,
Attention Christmas Shoppers
This Saturday, December 18, 2021, I will be appearing at Antiques Village, 651 Lyons Rd, Washington Township in Montgomery County, Ohio (Centerville) with all my books (https://www.antiquesvillage.net/). I plan to stay from the 10 am opening until at least 5 pm. This really is a fun place with some unique antiques, plus lots of second-hand
Looking For a Children’s Christmas Book?
If you are looking for a Christmas book for a child, I would like to offer The Cactus Who Wanted to Be a Christmas Tree, available on this website (https://www.bobwelbaum-author.com/the-cactus-who-wanted-to-be-a-christmas-tree/) and Amazon.com in paperback and downloadable forms. Its Amazon rating is 4.4 out of 5 (https://www.amazon.com/Cactus-Who-Wanted-Christmas-Tree/dp/1938768507/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Bob+Welbaum&qid=1638648358&sr=8-1).
What Might Be Coming Our Way in 2022
As part of the annual end-of-the-year recapitulations the media is so fond of, the November 22/29 issue of Time magazine lists the 100 best inventions of 2021. The complete list is at https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2021/, but here are some that caught my eye. A Public Health Breakthrough — Thanks mostly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation