I finished Defending Jacob at the end of the summer and then went straight to Once We Were Brothers (at Ben’s recommendation. Great book.). I am currently in the middle of Unorthodox but I expect to be finished with that in a day or two. So, I am getting ready for something new to read. Any suggestions? Can you tell me your most recent …
I wrote this blog a few weeks ago and planned on posting it while I was away on vacation. But, after reading Don's blog yesterday, I thought it would be a perfect follow-up. Within the past few years, I lost both of my parents within a short period of time. I never knew any of my grandparents as they all died before I was born. My Mom was an onl …
Einstein used the phrase, "spooky things at a distance", to describe the randomness of quantum mechanics, specifically when one particle instantaneously reacts to the effect of an observation of another particle very far away from it. He rejected that notion as it ran counter to his theory of special relativity. As he said, "God does not play di …
In a couple of months, barring what happens with our government, Twitter will go public. For you investors out there it's the biggest IPO since Facebook. For us in social media, we get to look at Twitter "under the hood." To see how they really make money and other fun facts. Twitter is really a news phenomenom that has created a world in which 1 …
I have become a snap shot artist with the advent of my iPhone 5 which has a far better camera than my old Blackberry. I fancy myself not so much an artist as a shutter bug. Someone who seizes the advantage of having the instant ability to see a picture in my mind's eye and take it "in the moment". A perfect everyday example is above. What …
I like the Fall. I like the change of weather from summer to the cooler nights, and, ultimately, the cool days of Fall. But the best thing about Fall is the color. There is nothing better than the natural beauty of the leaves changing. This looks like a good year for the colors of foliage. We were up in the Berkshires last weekend and the leave …
Here is a test for everyone. The condemnation of the federal government right now is pretty universal throughout the country. Nitwits, tools, terrorists, arsonists, cowards, bullies are only the types of names that are fit for print here in our family-friendly blog. There are much worse being distributed in other venues. I want to pose a tes …
As I am writing this blog and readying for sleep, the news is reporting that when I wake up in the morning whole segments of the government will be shut down. One estimate I read placed potential layoffs at close to 800,000. All sorts of federal programs and agencies will need to curtail their operations, although it seems the major services, like …
The blog Don posted yesterday truly intrigued me. If you haven’t read it, go back and read it. One of the themes in his blog was how the passage of time affects whom our heroes are. Don wrote that, in response to the question, “who is the greatest living person?” Yale students in 1938 and 1945 gave names such as Albert Einstein and Wins …
I came across a very surprising fact in the book I am reading. It was about a poll taken in 1937 and 1938 of freshman students at Princeton University. One question they were asked was, who is the greatest living American? Their first choice was FDR, followed by Charles Evans Hughs and Herbert Hoover in second that third position. They were a …
I've recently became part of a guys book club and having never been part of one before, I didn't know what to expect. My initial perceptions were not what I experienced. Rather than a boring meeting talking about the finer points of sentence structure, it's filled with good laughs, stories, politics and sometimes talking about the book. Suffice it …
The title above is the pass word conceived by Gotham Videographer Cayce Crown ("I shoot your relatives so you don't need to") for the Gotham Film Festival (our 3rd annual is on 10/22) site. When I first saw the password I was both surprised and complimented as she had captured my entire 16 year Gotham adventure in a short string. Growing up …
On Tuesday, I eavesdropped on my Mother speaking to about 50 Gothamites and guests at the Friar's Club about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor. I say "eavesdrop" somewhat in jest, because I was in the audience and in plain sight. No matter how many times I have heard the stories, there is always something new. Perhaps I have heard it …
The NCAA just pulled back on some of the punishments it imposed on Penn St University resulting from the Jerry Sanduskey scandal. Already, there are opinions forming on both sides. Some say reducing the sanctions are wroong, others have gone so far as to say that the sanctions were overly inflicting and that the roll-back should actually come wit …
I don’t even really understand it and I am convinced that the students in New York State who are being subjected to this new curriculum don’t either. Not to mention the teachers who by estimation are all kind of scratching their heads. This past year, the entirety of the way our students learned was changed, at least in my school district. The cu …
