As I walked home from the voting station yesterday, I turned excitedly to my friend and said, “I’m so excited that at this time tomorrow, we’re going to have our first female president!” I saw it as a huge sign of progress that our country was going to elect a female president, and not just … Read more
Recently I saw an article on ESPN about former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling. Apparently he’s considering running for senator from Massachusetts in a few years. His decision was considered somewhat controversial because he owned a video game company that received a $75 million loan guarantee to move to Rhode Island in 2010, only to go bankrupt … Read more
I’ve watched parts of most presidential debates, but until tonight, I’m not sure that I watched an entire presidential debate from start to finish. I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out why I watched all of tonight’s debate (and why I haven’t done that for other debates, as far as I can recall), and I think … Read more
One of my favorite Seinfeld subplots is when Kramer takes a dog to the vet to diagnose and treat his own cough. If you haven’t seen it, treat yourself to these 2 and a half minutes. Today was Walter’s annual checkup. He’s fine–much healthier than Biddy–though he was pretty stressed to be at the vet. … Read more
Today I saw articles and videos about 3 different protests (a small slice of all protests, I’m sure): NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the national anthem to protest racial oppression in the US. In his words, “When there’s significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent, … 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
Let’s say that you get a $20 million phone call tomorrow. Maybe you win the lottery or sign a huge contract or sell your company–whatever matches with your life. The point is, you’re getting a huge sum of money. Do you spend any of it on friends and family? If so, how do you spend … Read more
Today I was planning to write something silly, as I usually do, but I can’t. I just can’t. The worst mass shooting in US history happened early this morning in Orlando. A solitary gunman shot and killed at least 50 people. My heart is heavy for those who died, as well as their families, friends, … Read more
Last week, the 32nd season of Survivor ended as it always does: A live reunion show where they announce the winner and talk with the contestants about the season. Sometimes Survivor itself has some surprises planned for the finale, but this time, someone in the audience brought the surprise. After Jeff Probst talked to the … Read more
I’ve had this article sitting in my “list o’ blog entries” for a while, simply because I haven’t known how to add anything more interesting than the original article. But it’s sat there too long, and I figure I’ll just go ahead and mention it to you, just because it deserves mentioning. Milana Vayntrub, whom … Read more