Month

November 28 (Thanksgiving Day,) 2024 Science fiction does an excellent job of naming alien races. Klingons, Ewoks, Sontarans, Terileptils, the list goes on. But for many years, the challenge for the genre was to find the right word for its more familiar characters: the members of our own species. Homo sapiens just won’t cut it outside of biology journals. In at least one episode of 1960s Star Trek, we were call

On vacation in Ireland (or possibly England, but I think it was Ireland) my father tripped over a trailer hitch and badly broke his ankle. He came home in an impressive cast—knee to foot—that well-wishers had extensively decorated. He pointed out one of the signatures to me. It was Arnold Palmer. The famous golfer was a fellow passenger on the airplane back to the U.S, and he signed the cast. At the donut

November 7th, 2024 A famous quote has been lodged in my mind all day, and I will present it at the end of this essay (Hey, always keep your reader engaged!) Just before the election, a parade of would-be experts was repeating the same encouraging prediction. Political celebs like Michael Moore and James Carville, former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, various columnists for the liberal media that I gobbled up beca

November 3, 2024 The weekend has brought a few glimmers of encouraging news about the upcoming election. Several reports claim that undecided voters are breaking for Kamala Harris. A poll out of Iowa—until now considered a safe state for all Republicans—shows Harris up by 3 points. Pennsylvania might be swinging her way, too. Yet oddly enough, the moment that lifted my spirits the most was Harris’ appearance on