Writings

Detective stories, whether in books or on TV or in a movie, attract a lot of us. I think part of the reason is because we love puzzles, and a good mystery or detective story is a delightful kind of puzzle. We try to figure out what the lead character

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” So they say, but what does it mean? You could google it, of course, but no need. I’ll explain with some illustrations, including “google it.” Google, as you know, is the proprietary name of a search engine. It was a

If you ever worked for IBM, you have heard the word “think” used as more than a suggestion. As a “motto” (command?), “think” was made famous by the man who named IBM and made it famous, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. At one point he was one of  the highest paid

There once was a man — a long, long time ago — named Diogenes. There could have been more than one, as I think of it, but the Diogenes (di-ah’-jin-eze) we remember lived around 300 to 400 years before Christ. He was witty, wise, and a great teacher. For much

Several years ago I learned a fascinating piece of information about seeing. Even if you already know this, it’s still fun. Mechanically speaking, our eyes see everything upside down. According to an article I found on Mental Floss, “That’s because the process of refraction through a convex lens causes the

We’ve all played hide-and-seek, a game that holds some possibility of both excitement and fear. Fear? Well, it did for me. The excitement was that no one would be able to find me. The fear was that no one would look for me. I loved the idea of being stealthier

Good and Friday are pals. They go together like a boy in high school and the girl wearing his lettermans jacket . “Thank goodness it’s Friday!” We’ve all used that, either verbally or by texting TGIF!. All of that, theoretically, has to do with the delightful fact that it is

I have a confession to make, and I’m going to make it here: Last weekend I spent way too much time watching sports. When I say way too much, I mean waaaay too much. It’s the first time in years I’ve done that. Maybe I’ve never done it. But man

Everybody knows something. I know some things. My wife knows other things. Expand that list to our families and friends, and together we know far more. One piece of knowledge we share is who to call about things we don’t know about. Is it a good thing that in these

Back in our Palo Alto days, we had several delightful and interesting neighbors. Across the street lived Van and Martha. Wonderful people. We went over to their house for a party once and discovered a slot machine also lived there. Martha loved playing slots. In fact they frequented a gambling

“What do you do?” That may be the most common question asked when meeting someone. It is “understood” that the real question is, “What do you do for work?” Sometimes they actually want to know, though in my experience it’s usually an “ice breaker.” Perhaps if we made our answers

When you hear the phrase, “Do be do be do”  what comes to mind? If you said Frank Sinatra, give yourself a gold star. He made the phrase famous when he substituted it for lyrics in a recording of Strangers In The Night. The song was written by Rodgers (music)