Nov 18Lunacy, Part IWe’ve been watching the Nova “Planets” episodes on PBS and discovering weird and wonderful things about them like Uranus and Neptune (gas giants and yes we missed that one in trivia recently) are billions of miles from the sun (Voyager 2 took almost ten years to get to them) and…Moon4 min readMoon4 min read
Oct 14The Virtues of IdlenessOver the years, idleness has gotten a bad rap. Even the dictionary definition is a bit condescending: “the quality or state of being idle (as through lack of worth, occupation, employment, industry).” Indeed, idleness has been described variously as the root of all evil; the enemy of the soul; characteristic…Philosophy4 min readPhilosophy4 min read
Jul 25A Lesson in Chaosology, Part IIOkay, so here is my cop-out for writing about what is good about chaos. I asked ChatGPT to do it. My prompt was “write a humorous blog in the style of Mark Twain about what is good about chaos.” Here is the response. I might be out of a job. Use the link below to view what Mark has to say. The Glorious Circus of Chaos (Image: Portrait of the American writer Mark Twain taken by A.F. Bradley in New York, 1907. Public domain.)Mark Twain1 min readMark Twain1 min read
Jul 25A Lesson in Chaosology, Part IRecently I serendipitously came across, which is pretty much the way I discover everything, a biography written by NPR Invisibilia reporter Lulu Miller titled Why Fish Don’t Exist. Unexpectedly, it’s about a scientist whose main pursuit in life was finding new species of fish and naming them. That’s interesting in…Chaos Theory4 min readChaos Theory4 min read
Jun 20Back to Where It All BeganWell, who would have expected this? On June 29, 2004, RatBlurt published his first blog on Blogger.com. The post was an excerpt from a never-finished novel titled There He Goes, which depicts a world in which US presidents are “elected” in much the same way as Miss USA or Mr…Elections4 min readElections4 min read
May 13Back to Where It All BeganWell, who would have expected this? On June 29, 2004, RatBlurt published his first blog on Blogger.com. The post was an excerpt from a never-finished novel titled There He Goes, which depicts a world in which US presidents are “elected” in much the same way as Miss USA or Mr…Politics4 min readPolitics4 min read
Oct 19, 2022How to Be Happy #42: Get OldAs you can see, this blog is the forty-second entry in my series of sageortedly [purportedly wise] advice on how to find lasting contentment and peace. It looks like I’ve been wasting my (and your) time. All of those pieces suggest we have to do something to make ourselves feel…Aging3 min readAging3 min read
Aug 3, 2022How to Be Happy #40: If You Think Things Are Horrible Today…have an odd suggestion for cheering yourself up: go to the Mental Floss website and read A.J. Jacobs’ blog “The Bad Old Days.” Here’s a short list of some of the articles available: 6 Ways the Past Stank–Literally 7 Ways Dating in the Past Was Terrible 6 Ways Christmases Past…History3 min readHistory3 min read
Jul 26, 2022How to Be Happy #39: Thank Your Lucky StarsThe pull quote above pops out in an Aeon essay by Timm Triplett titled “You’re Astonishing!” Tim begins his story by noting that his grandfather was doing business in England and about to step onto the Titanic to return home when he got a sales invitation to Scotland and canceled…Self Improvement3 min readSelf Improvement3 min read
Jul 25, 2022The Curse of ChronoflictionIn Mexico, people who are “tocado” — “touched” — reveal that geological time can emerge through fissures in the land to alter the way we relate to our homes, cities, and even ourselves. Lachlan Summers, “Deep Time Sickness“ Reading Summers’ article, for some reason, evoked memories of the “Monsters of…History3 min readHistory3 min read
