Sentence of Dave
The Required Amount at the Prescribed Rate (Handcrafted From the Finest Corinthian Leather)
Game, Set, Dave is Old
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When my son Ian was a sophomore I could still occasionally win a set when I played him in tennis; last year, his junior season, I could stil...
4 comments:
Pet Paradox
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My vet still requires masking . . . for people-- but pets don't have to wear masks and they are the patients!
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Tomorrow, I Just Might Start Playing Video Games . . . Tomorrow
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New episode of We Defy Augury up-- I read Gabrielle Zevin's novel about creativity, collaboration, and video-game design Tomorrow an...
Salad Days of Dave
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Making a salad in the morning to bring for lunch seems like a great idea in the AM-- healthy, nutritious, delicious and fibrous-- but then w...
That Was Only Monday?
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Full on Monday today . . . as a model narrative, I told a story in Public Speaking I haven't recounted in a while-- the time Catherine a...
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Good (Dog Defecation) Deed
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Today at the dog park, when this older guy's dog Max pooped in the far corner, I went and picked it up and disposed of it-- and I didn...
Uh . . . Wow . . . TV?
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The third episode of The Last of Us -- the HBO show based on the video game with the same name-- is some very ambitious, very emotional, ver...
How to Get a Seat at Salt
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After many fruitless attempts, my wife and I finally got a seat at Salt during happy hour; Salt is an upscale seafood joint in New Brunswick...
Dave Educates the Youth?
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We had our first "Show and Tell" session with the new Creative Writing kids today-- they read something from the world that they f...
Groundhog Day (on Groundhog Day)
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It's mid-year . . . mid-terms are over and it's back to the repetitive grind; I did "first day of school stuff" in my thre...
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It's February!
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Get busy, pack it in and compress yourself-- it's February, you sons of bitches, and you've only got 28 days to get it done this mon...
Less Cheese Please
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We stopped buying bags of pre-grate cheese (mainly because they have weird chemical additives to prevent clumping) and this had two good out...
Riley Sager, You Give Genre Fiction a Bad Name
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Wow . . . this new Riley Sager book The House Across the Lake is a hot mess . . . but it certainly inspired me to think about the rules...
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Highs and Lows
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I was quite pleased with myself (for a few minutes) at indoor soccer this morning-- the first two games were zero-zero ties (no wonder Ameri...
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Sarcastic Tone Implied
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I'm not very good at sarcasm-- I don't have the voice for it-- so I've got to broadcast it . . . here it comes: you know what...
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AM Record
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An EB AM record . . . nineteen people at Friday morning basketball today-- pretty wild, we had an upstairs game and a sub-gym game-- and the...
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Two Profound Questions
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Here they are: 1. Why is it so hard for me to get a pair of socks on without ripping them? 2. Why have I gotten so into listening to The Bri...
6 comments:
Dave is Not a Doctor
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I'm not a medical doctor (though I often play one in my home, when I'm diagnosing my children and telling them various remedies: try...
6 comments:
Why I Don't Own a Gun
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When I play pickleball, I get great joy from hitting my opponent square in the chest with the ball-- if they pop up a "dink," this...
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Let's Play Duck Duck Oil Sands
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Kate Beaton's graphic memoir Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is heavy viscous stuff . . . I get into it in my new episode of We Def...
2 comments:
Where Art Thou, Snow Day? Wherefore, No Snow?
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Another gray, kind-of-mild winter day . . . where is the snow?
Moral: Eat at La Casita!
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Yesterday at early morning basketball, we had sixteen players so we had to run a pair of four-on-four games across the gym-- while this was ...
Real Night Court Takes Longer Than 22 Minutes
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I hope my son learned his lesson yesterday at night court-- my lawyer buddy Jay got his violations knocked down to two points (and a stern l...
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The Joys of Fatherhood
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It would be a perfect Thursday afternoon to relax, take a nap, perhaps have a beer or two and avoid the ugly weather, but instead, I'll ...
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I'll Always Have "Tupperawareness"
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I made a playlist on Spotify called "psychedelicious" but -- once again-- I haven't coined anything new . . . dammit.
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Beware the Candy House
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Jennifer Egan's new novel The Candy House , ostensibly a "sequel" to her tour-de-force A Visit From the Goon Squad , reminds...
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Let There Be Sweat
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The Sporting Gods did shine their benevolent (and sweaty) light on New Jersey yesterday-- for five glorious hours, as Rutgers defeated Ohio ...
May the Sporting Gods Shine Their Light on New Jersey Today?
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This could be-- if the sporting gods will it-- a great sporting day for New Jersey-- Rutgers vs. Ohio State basketball game is about to star...
Picture This: You Are a Woman Working the Oil Camps of Alberta
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Kate Beaton's autobiographical graphic novel Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is heavy, viscous stuff; Beaton heads from Nova Scotia t...
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Catching Up
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This is the week COVID finally caught Catherine and Ian-- but not me! . . . or not yet-- and earlier in the week the principal caught Ian go...
Word Word Words
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Catherine and I couldn't agree on the difference in meaning between "pocket change" and "pocket money"-- the argumen...
Next Level
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This afternoon, Ian and I played basketball with a big man who could really pass-- it was like he had eyes in the back of his head-- and whe...
Stars, Caves, and Everything in Between
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New episode of We Defy Augury up and streaming . . . "Stars, Caves, and Everything" is loosely inspired on the new Neil deGras...
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When Pigs Fly
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I never listened to Pink Floyd's Animals enough-- perhaps because of the weird song lengths . . . 3 songs that are over ten minutes and...
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I Sat in a Teacup Chair on a Little Island
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Entertaining day in the city yesterday-- we took an 11:30 AM train in, along with lots of hockey fans going to the Devils/Rangers game (and ...
We Walked on a Little Island
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Colin Quinn has still got it-- more to come tomorrow, but a full day in the city (but MVD . . . Most Valuable Driver . . . to Ian, who drove...
Weird Movie
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The Banshees of Inisherin is evocative, beautiful, bucolic, awkward, insular, funny and weird-- it will make you evaluate your friends, you...
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Weird Weather
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Foggy and unseasonable warm this week, which is annoying as far as snowboarding conditions go but a great week for our hot water heater (and...
The Futility of Chasing the Shuttlecock
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I was playing badminton yesterday morning-- singles-- and I was heading to the right but the shuttlecock came back more to the left and I un...
Livin' La Vida Lapvona
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A weird episode about a weird book: in "Livin' La Vida Lapvona" , I try to make sense of Ottessa Moshfegh's repugnant f...
School Returns with a Vengeance
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My wife and I had to teach today, despite the fact that it was a federal holiday, while Ian got to sleep in; Alex didn't get in until tw...
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Feral Hogs + Atlanta = Awesome
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We just finished one of my favorite TV shows ever: Atlanta . . . my son Alex finished ahead of Ian and me, but Alex watched the last few ...
Book List 2022
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Here are the books I finished (possibly with some skimming) this year . . . I started plenty of others and quit them because . . . well beca...
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Bizarro Four
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Fantastic Four: Full Circle is a psychedelic journey into a Bizarro World anti-matter negative energy universe, where some weird doppelgäng...
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The Essence?
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At a party last night, we played a game called "The Essence" -- but instead of "the Asker" asking questions like that, w...
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THAT Was Fun
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It's weird when your kid comes home from college for Winter Break-- there is certainly an adjustment period: they are used to a totally ...
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Charismatic Megafauna!
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New episode of "We Defy Augury" is up . . . thoughts loosely inspired by Steve Brusatte's book The Rise and Reign of the Ma...
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Almost Fun . . .
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Alex, Ian, and I went to the gym at 10 AM to play some basketball and we got a three-on-three game going but Alex and Ian were the tallest p...
Gold, Frankincense, and Bluetooth Hat
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Fun Christmas: I got the kids some graphic novels (that I want to read as well) and my wife got me a bluetooth ski hat with speakers embedde...
Xmas Eve Miracles!
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This morning, my older son Alex and I went to the Piscataway Y and played some basketball-- his game has gotten better because he's play...
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Winter Break is Here!
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Winter Break has arrived: we survived ChatGPTbotgate at school, I survived early morning basketball (and lit it up from outside . . . Merry ...
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Almost Break
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Alex is home from college and Alex, Ian, and I watched an episode of Atlanta and ate some pizza and told stories about college and high sc...
The Robots Are Here and the Writing is Uncanny
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We had a Rutgers grade calibration day and we found several essays that seem to have sections written by AI, probably ChatGPT . . . and this...
Early Morning Date with a Dead Dog
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You never know where the adventure of parenthood is going to take you . . . this morning I woke up my son Ian at 5:45 AM and we drove over t...
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Adrift in the Digital Doldrums
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New episode of We Defy Augury is up and streaming: "Adrift in the Digital Doldrums" . . . in this one I describe how to become...
Meta Action is Still Action, Right?
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The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent , starring Nicolas Cage as a gonzo-version of himself, is entertaining, fun, and meta . . . and Ped...
Let There Be Lint
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I cleaned my dryer vent duct today, using a shop-vac and a kit that contained a bunch of flexible plastic sticks that you screw together and...
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Peanut Butter Hustle
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I was preparing to go to early morning basketball-- it was 5:30 AM-- and I had to walk the dog in the sideways rain (I've got a special ...
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At Least It Was Short
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Once again, I got sucked into another ridiculous Blake Crouch sci-fi thriller: this one is the first in a trilogy and it's called Pines...
I Need To Try Chick-fil-A
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My Public Speaking students are giving informational speeches and I have learned I don't know anything: today I learned about Abby Lee M...
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Croatia: All Feet on Deck
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Croatia, with a population of 3.9 million, makes it to the finals of the World Cup in 2018 and the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2022 . . ...
Carrie Soto Is Wack
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On my podcast We Defy Augury , I usually try to convince you to read a particular book-- or at least to enjoy my thoughts on the book-- but...
Sometimes You Win When You Don't Watch
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Good week of sports for me: I managed to get to school early for both badminton and basketball, made it to the gym Saturday morning and play...
World Cup Woes
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It's kind of nice when your country is eliminated from the World Cup because you can watch the games in a state of curiosity, awe, and g...
TGIFPK Edition
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It's a Messi PK Friday!
It's a Miracle . . . Now Shut Up and Do Your Work
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We were brainstorming topics for an informational presentation in my Public Speaking class and some boys wanted to do a speech about how &qu...
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Blech
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I'm not sure what season it is right now, but it's not winter and it's not fall . . . decay?
BADminton
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I debuted my new (and fairly cheap . . . under fifty dollars) badminton racket today at 6:30 AM-- it was certainly an upgrade from the gym c...
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Liberation Daze
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I just put up a new episode of my podcast, We Defy Augury . . . this episode, "Liberation Daze," examines the writing of George...
Too Many Sports . . .
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Big Rutgers win over Indiana Friday night, then I settled in at the bar with some friends to watch the Giants, Jets, and World Cup game Sund...
USA? USA!
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Here we go . . . should be fun, despite the anxiety and undue concern about the state of Christian Pulisic's nether regions -- there'...
I Cook on Thursdays
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No time to write, as I'm about to start cooking . . . yesterday was Catherine's birthday and instead of the usual present: two weeks...
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I'm Back . . . And Angrier Than Ever (About Dumb Stuff in a Chick-lit Novel)
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I'm on the mend-- thanks to Tamiflu, my immune system, benzonatate, Mucinex, and acetaminophen-- but that flu was a doozy . . . I hope I...
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Sick Sucks
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Sickness . . . it's so fucked up-- the Friday after Thanksgiving was turning into one of those wonderful holiday break days-- on Wednesd...
2 comments:
Costa Rica Shocks Japan
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I always root for the Central and South American teams in the World Cup (and Mexico and Canada . . . proximity rooting) and so I was excited...
Yuck
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My son came home for Thanksgiving and gave me his cold.
This Is How Old Soccer Fans Party
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Fun day today . . . got up early, worked on the podcast, got my game-time chili into the crockpot, went to the gym and played some two-on-tw...
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Happy Thanksgiving
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I'd really like to put up this clip from the movie Pieces of April , where Tyrone (formerly Eddies) wishes his ex-girlfriend "Happy...
Fall Guy
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It's Thanksgiving Break (and I raked).
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A Slow Start to the World Cup . . .
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Yesterday, I took a half-day and so did my friend, colleague, and fellow soccer coach Terry-- our plan was to find a raucous bar, settle in,...
Southern Change Gonna Come at Last?
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The past couple weeks I have immersed myself in the South, with a capital "S": my wife and I traveled to Charleston; I read a bu...
Kids These Days . . .
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We've had bathroom issues at East Brunswick High School-- vaping, vandalism, hooking up, etcetera-- so kids have to digitally sign into ...
American Tailgating vs. The Americans
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There's nothing like a good-old-fashioned-football tailgate-- but that doesn't mean I like everything about a good-old-fashioned-foo...
Stuff I Watched, Stuff I'm Watching
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If you're looking for a different take on the horror genre, check out His House-- it's the story of a refugee couple from wartorn Su...
Voodoo Health Shit
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I pride myself on being a logical person, versed in numeracy, literacy, and many topics-- but one thing I don't fuck around with is medi...
Dave Learns Two Things (That He Already Knew . . . Sort Of)
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This morning I learned that I really like Billy Cobham-- I like his drumming and his original stuff and his work with Miles Davis and his wo...
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Go Ahead and Glue Yourself to The Scream
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I really loved the new Sam Harris podcast "Science and Civilization" ; Harris chats with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about...
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A Bit 'mo Charleston
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Some last thoughts about Charleston-- -- our tiny VRBO rental on Line Street (in the young and trendy Upper King Street neighborhood) was no...
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More Charleston
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We have really covered a lot of ground over the past two days, according to my Fitbit we've walked over fifty thousand steps, and we'...
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Charleston day one
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After a slightly stressful departure, as our son Ian-- who was locking up the house and heading to my brother's place with t...
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Destroying the World (Creatively)
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My newest episode of We Defy Augury is an epic adventure into apocalypses of all kinds; "Apocalypse New" is inspired by Walter...
7 comments:
What About the Dogs? The Dogs!
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Nothing is more fucked up than having to tell your dog she can't have dinner at her usual time because of a massive government conspirac...
3 comments:
Lantern Flies: The Hits Keep on Coming
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Ian and I took a chainsaw to the low branches on the autumn blaze maple in our yard; I held the ladder and Ian used his long arms to reach a...
3 comments:
Conspiracy Theories in America
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This episode of Plain English about conspiracy theories is both compelling and entertaining . . . I especially like the definition of a con...
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But Don't Confuse Samuel Jackson and Laurence Fishburne
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A student walked into my first period class this morning sleepily murmured, "Good morning Mr. Soder" and I turned my head and said...
6 comments:
Got to Be the Shoes
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You don't choose your family, but you don't really choose your friends either-- friendships tend to form in a fairly arbitrary patte...
5 comments:
(Ooh) That Smell
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I lent my car to my seventeen year old son Sunday night, so he could drive some friends to get Halloween costumes-- but instead they got pho...
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