My wife's father has been extremely sick for a while now. Two days ago, his wife, my wife's stepmother went in for brain surgery to remove a tumor. She has additional lung surgery scheduled to follow in a couple of weeks to remove more cancer. Yesterday, her sister passed away who had been battling cancer for only a short while. My father-in-la …
Over dinner Sunday night, my parents were in the mood to tell stories. They repeated for us, with my children at the table, tales of their parents and their parents’ parents – stories I know I have heard before but which somehow sounded new. For example, my dad repeated the story of his father’s father who was a peddler. He died at the hand of a …
Fred’s blog about control a few weeks ago inspired me to think about a related subject, delegating. I was never good at delegating work. I always felt that I could probably do it better and faster myself. I’ve come to realize that my inability to delegate work was tied into my inability to relinquish control over the work. A few years ago, we hir …
There was big news this week, if you get excitied about the origin of the cosmos. It even came with a picture on the front page of the New York Times, what the universe looked like when it was a baby, only a few hunderd thousand years old. They also tell us that the universe is 80 million years older than we thought. All those universe bir …
Dr. Francisco Fernandez-Aviles working at London's Royal Free Hospital has been building replacement parts for human bodies. So far he's "installed" 5 windpipes. A Dr. Seifalian made tear ducts and an artery that are now living inside of people. He's made a nose he intends to use...on a patient who lost his to cancer. And as part of a clinical t …
I recently took the 2 featured photographs:"Murder The Rich" and "Kill Money" The messages are clear. Are they too chilling to ignore?Could there be Revolution in the air?
Today is the beginning of the NCAA basketball tournament -- otherwise often referred to as “March Madness”. I didn't fill out my brackets and selections for the office pool. I participate in two office pools: one is a lottery pool and the other is the Superbowl pool. Both of these pools are completely random -- a function of luck and chance. Un …
Recently Rob Portman, Senator and perennial presidential candidate wrote an op-ed piece for CNN. He not only announced a philosophical change in his belief on gay marriage, but also described the intellectual process by which the change occurred. This is not a piece debating gay marriage, but rather a discussion on breathing room and tolerance for …
Let’s start with, I hate that word . . .”perfect”. Perfect doesn’t really exist but this weekend for me it did. My son was bar mitzvahed this weekend. And, the entire weekend was everything that we could have hoped for. Pride in his accomplishments, pleasure in being able to celebrate with our family and friends, and more than one good meal. …
It was an event we were happily anticipating for several weeks. I should, actually, say that we had been anticipating this event for several years because I remember distinctly where and when I was told about this event. And since I don’t remember much these days, that’s saying a lot. The event was on Saturday night. My husband and I were all dre …
I think my wife may be leaving me. You know when you just have a hunch about something, and find little signs? It is for Justin Timberlake. She seems to be watching his music videos a lot lately and smiling and talking about him. I am not even sure he knows it yet, but she is coming. I have to say that it is not a bad choice, especially wit …
An upstate Assemblyman from Putnam County, Steve Katz, was stopped for speeding (80mph in a 65mph zone...not bad) when the officer smelled that smell. He found a bag of marijuana and Mr. Katz was ticketed for possesion. The funny part is that he was one of 50 Assembly members who voted against legalizing medical marijuana last June. That bill did …
Lately the concept of Control has come to the fore and into focus. Control is defined as "To exercise authority or dominating influence over; direct; regulate". The definition brings back the memory Alexander Haag blurting (erroneously) "I am in control", just after Reagan was shot. I really didn't consider my self a controlling type person until …
I have met "The Professor" several times, mostly through mutual friends. She taught at a major University in New York City. She was, by all accounts, a very popular and beloved teacher. I learned recently that The Professor was no longer teaching. I doubt that there was "cause" for her leaving -- certainly her departure was not the result of a …
Yes society was saved by the recent court ruling banning large sodas. It was an obvious ruling that couldn't have surprised anyone, but I suppose it wasn't the type of thing people get too wound up over. Take away their right to a gun or an abortioin and people lose their minds, but big sodas...seems a little silly to get upset over. As I was s …
