To worry is to be. To be is to worry.
I’m not a student of old or contemporary films, but I’ve seen enough of both to notice some profound differences between them. Just to be clear, when I say “old films” I’m talking about movies that were made before I was born. Oh, shut up! Yes, there were films made before then. I’m old, but [...]
I’ve come to realize that a great many people are thoroughly fascinated by a great many things that I don’t care a whit about. The following are just a few examples. I don’t care what kind of dog the Obamas got. Barack Obama is the president of the richest, most powerful country on earth. Even [...]
All kidding aside, if you walked into a room already populated with a person and a chimpanzee, you would have no problem distinguishing between the two. Nonetheless, most scientific studies on the differences between human and chimpanzee DNA show a variance of somewhere between 1.2 and 2.7 percent. Despite there still being some expert debate [...]
I don’t know what brought this to mind lo these great many years later, but I hated the way they taught literature back in the Mesozoic Era when I was a high school student. The accepted pedagogical approach back then was to analyze every word and phrase on every page to expose the myriad enigmatic, [...]
We can learn a lot from literature and film. For example, despite the gender difference, I take inspiration from Scarlett O’Hara in Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone With the Wind, which was made into a famous film. Each day, immediately upon waking up, before even getting out of bed, I like to shout the last part [...]
Idea for a new television show: American Idle. Concept: A bunch of people sit inert on a couch watching endless reality shows on television. To add excitement, turn it into a contest to see who can sit the stillest for the longest while criticizing the people on the shows playing on the television set. Prize: [...]
Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I find that my mind is often fully occupied thinking about silly nonsense. For example, did you ever stop to think that everybody pees and craps. Absolutely everybody. The President of the United States, the Queen of England, the Pope, in fact, all heads of state, government and [...]
I have a confession to make. Not only have I never written poetry, but I’ve also never enjoyed reading it either, except, of course, for limericks beginning, “There once was a lady from Nantucket.” I’m stating this neither as a boast nor as a poetry put-down. Quite the contrary, I’m a bit embarrassed about my [...]