I am not, by nature, an organized person.  I tell my students this on the first day.  Because of this, I have a strict system for keeping track of their papers.  It involves a virtual Rube Goldberg device-like system of baskets and trays. I recognize this weakness in myself, and have compensated in a way […]

Any time someone says they’re afraid of something, people immediately label it a “phobia,” which is, let’s face it, silly.  You stand on the edge of a high cliff, look out over the side amidst gusts of wind and then step back saying, “whoa” or something and people say, “Oh, you have a fear of […]

There’s this hotel M and I love at the coast – which  I suppose right there gives away a sense of my geographic location… People don’t really talk about going to the “beach” in Oregon.  It’s not just idiomatic, it’s just that going to the “beach” carries a set of expectations with it: bathing suits, […]

Many years ago I tried to take a new approach to first dates.  Instead of dancing around the “getting to know you” questions, I tried to come up with some fun questions to just throw right out there.  Full disclosure: these questions were only field-tested once in an actual “date” capacity, and it was a New-Coke-level […]

So, here we are then.  Congratulations all around, everyone’s done a bang up job, and it’s going to be a great time, I’m sure, and I hate to be a “meeting guy” but, first thing’s first: some basic foundational points. Yes, look, I know we’re all excited to get going, but there are just a […]