I took a friend to Roosevelt Island. We walked down to the southern tip, where planted and overgrown greenery shaded a ruin from view. It used to house smallpox labs or patients, and now it …
Per Leonard's posts, sometimes we use shampoo bars. I also use stick deodorant (Tom's of Maine or other non-mainstream stuff) and chew gum or use those little plastic strips for breath freshening. Thus, my usual …
How to handle chronic complainers: actually listen to them and empathize, saying, "I don't know how you put up with it." From the discussion of Joel Spolsky's timeless "Fire and Motion": So, I took my …
Take some US citizens, don't charge them with any crime, but keep them from returning to their home in Northern California, and deny them their constitutional rights. Especially when one is a teenager, and they're …
Will Franken! September 7th-28th he tours NYC, including a couple of stops at my usual haunt Rififi.
Math teachers, parents, husbands, and tables all get under our skin. I left home for college, cut my hair, and took off my earrings once and for all. But my mom asked me to wear …
"Who discovered the USA? Christopher Columbus." "Is this still right?" she asked. Man, oh, man, all the things I wanted to say. Before any white people from Europe came along, indigenous people lived in North …
Scott Rosenberg shouts in favor of incremental change, reminding me of Leonard's maxim: "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked." Scott also points to Josh …
Last week's MC Masala and this week's went up on the web today. The pursuit of happiness analysis: I'll never make it as a self-help book author because I can't reduce creating happiness to a …
