Stories Short and Strange
17 short stories for general audiences ranging from the unusual to the unbelievable to the just plain strange.
A Private Way to Save Land
There has been a lot of talk recently about presidential executive action. One of President Obama’s actions late last year was to designate two new national monuments in Nevada and Utah (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/12/28/507314596/obama-designates-two-new-national-monuments-in-nevada-and-utah), which, like most presidential actions these days, was considered very controversial in some circles. If you disagree with this type of government action
Does Your Heart Talk To Your Brain?
Another of those questions we don’t think of every day — do your heart and brain communicate? Recent research suggests there’s definite link. University of Sussex researcher Sarah Garfinkel has found evidence that the beats of your heart — and your awareness of that rhythm — shapes everything from anxiety to racism to stock trading.
Book Review — Legacy of Ashes
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner, Doubleday, 2007 This was a very depressing book to read. According to Weiner’s account, all the horror stories you’ve heard about the CIA are true, and then some. Apparently the Agency has never been good at what I thought its main mission was —
Who WAS the Worst President?
For longer than I care to remember, we’ve been hearing some very partisan claims on social media about rating presidents. Who was the worst? Most historians have a very strong candidate — James Buchanan, our 15th chief executive (1857-1961), the president just before Abraham Lincoln. In fact, there is a new biography out entitled Worst.
Why Many Villains Have British Accents
Here’s something I’m sure you’ve been wondering about for a long time. If you see a lot of movies, you may have noticed many villains have British accents, even when no one else in the cast is British. These range from Peter Ustinov’s Prince John in Disney’s animated Robin Hood (pictured) to Anthony Hopkins in
Memories of an Inauguration.
An email from a college classmate just jogged my memory. I was in an inaugural parade! It was in January 1969, and Richard Nixon was about to take office, being elected by promising to end the Vietnam War. I was in my third year at the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), and mine was one
A Lesson From The Lincoln Memorial
A thought for this inauguration day — Have you ever studied Abraham Lincoln’s pose at the Lincoln Memorial? Specifically, notice his hands. His left hand is a tightly clinched fist, while the right hand is resting relaxed on the chair arm. This suggests there are two equal components of American leadership — strength and compassion.
How Cats Have Adopted Us
Cats are among our closest animal companions. There are about 100 million cats in the U.S., a number that continues to grow. Yet there is a distinct downside in this relationship. Some consider them an environmental disaster; our feline friends kill an estimated 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds each year, and they’ve been blamed for
Original Poetry — I Wish I Had Met…
Today, in honor of the inauguration, I’m reprinting a poem from my book Some Poems About Life. I Wish I Had Met… I wish I had met Washington To see just how he led to risk his fortune and his life, To hear what’s in his head. I wish I had met Jefferson To
Equal Opportunity For Hatred
In the last century or so we’ve focused a great deal on equal opportunity. Sometimes in the conversation we tend to forget women, hence the rise of feminism. Recently I ran across an article that reminded me yet again that equal means just that — equality in all phases of life, only in this instance