I recently had a Seinfeld-style tip dilemma. I’ll describe the situation and what I did, and you can tell me what I should have done. My cable box was acting up, so I called Charter and they sent over someone to fix it. Julius arrived right at the beginning of the 2-hour range of time–a … Read more
I learn and teach a lot of board games. It recently occurred to me that learning a new game engages my brain in a way that hasn’t happened since I was in school. And not just learning the game, but remembering all of the rules. A gamer’s brain is a veritable library of game rules. Is learning new games good … Read more
I continue to be fascinated by the TV show Shark Tank. I’ve written about this before, but today I wanted to focus on a specific aspect of the show: ultimatums. At least once per episode, one of the investors will propose a deal to an entrepreneur, and they’ll end it with something like: “I need … Read more
I need your advice. For a friend, not for me. (I’m quite happy with my job!) A friend of mine has been applying for jobs, and he got an offer today. He actually missed the phone call–the offer is on his voice mail. He hasn’t called back yet, and the organization didn’t give him a … Read more
Last week I was waiting for the chiropractor to arrive when I noticed that the walls were jam-packed with photos of celebrities. Most of the photos were autographed headshots. I’ve seen walls like this before, mostly in bars, restaurants, and doctor’s offices. But it had never before occurred to me to ask the question: How … Read more
I’ve continued to listen to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revisionist History” podcast, and the latest episode–Food Fight–raised some questions for me. The episode uses two universities, Vassar and Bowdoin, to demonstrate a key shortcoming in American higher education (in Gladwell’s opinion). Here’s the main comparison: 23% of Vassar’s students are Pell Grant recipients (as Gladwell says, these … Read more
While driving back from Indianapolis last Sunday, I started noticing cars pull over into an increasingly congested left lane. I followed suit, thinking they had seen something ahead in the right lane. Traffic quickly drew to a halt in the left lane, with right lane wide open. So after a few minutes, I inched over … Read more
I experienced something for the first time the other day that left me in a quandary. I went to see Finding Dory (quick sidenote: Wonderful movie! It has one of my favorite moments in any film) with two female friends. As we walked back to our cars after the movie, we were crossing a wide … Read more
Recently I’ve discovered that two of my favorite things are in direct conflict with each other. Or so it seems. Thing 1: I love leftovers. I’ve known this for many, many years. When I was growing up, I often ate leftover dinner food for breakfast. In my 20s, I loved making enough food for several meals so … Read more
Yesterday a friend mentioned an interesting Facebook post to me. A person had posted that they were defriending someone because they had casually written a Game of Thrones spoiler 3 days after the most recent episode aired. (They could have just unfollowed them, but I guess that was worth the price of friendship to them.) It … Read more