I’m interrupting my usual talk of sustainability leadership, sidchas, doof, and my other usual subjects for a story that happened this afternoon. The scene: With family. People’s stuff and toiletries are scattered about the room. My sister moved some things on a table and knocked a tube of toothpaste on the floor. She heard the noise but couldn’t see what fell. I said, “the toothpaste fell.” She didn’t hear and[…] Keep reading →

Context: Decades ago I used to go out clubbing and dancing. Back then I’d go out a couple weekends a month. Now I went once since the pandemic, and the last time before would have been years ago. A friend said he got tickets for a big DJ playing in Brooklyn and invited me to join. I didn’t know the DJ since I don’t know anything about the scene today.[…] Keep reading →

You know the story about the two women each claiming a baby was hers, where King Solomon says to cut the baby in half and the woman who says to let the other woman keep it must be the mother? Have you ever thought about this story? How has it become a model of wisdom? It fails at every level. First, are we supposed to believe a woman simply claims[…] Keep reading →

Do you love restaurant food? I figured out how to make restaurant-quality food based on mine. It’s easy and works every time. Start by making my famous no-packaging vegan stew, which I describe in How to make my famous no-packaging vegetable stew and showed on video in Vegan Seitan Stew, 4 minutes prep time (video). Then follow these four easy steps. How to make my stew restaurant quality in four[…] Keep reading →

Last week I posted The most amazing “You Are Here” map you’ve ever seen, which featured a map that referred to itself. In the closing paragraph I referred to a book—Godel, Escher, Bach—on recursion. I’d read and reread the book in the 1980s and it stuck with me. Not sure if anything would come of it, I wrote the author, Douglas Hofstadter, with a link. Beyond writing back that he[…] Keep reading →

On the one hand I prefer posting my own work here. On the other, I find Bill Burr funny and insightful and he took on population, which few do. Readers from before the pandemic know I performed open mic standup. I couldn’t think of how to joke about it. Some of Burr’s humor is dark, yet I couldn’t help laughing out loud. So I’m posting the bits of his I[…] Keep reading →

Kids today might not have watched All in the Family, but it was huge in its time and focused on a clash of cultures. Quoting Wikipedia, All in the Family is an American television series that ran for nine seasons, from 1971 to 1979. The show revolves around the life of a working-class father and his family. It broke ground on issues previously considered unsuitable for a U.S. network television[…] Keep reading →