Yesterday was a day for a couple good omens, which it seems like everyone could use right now.  One good omen involves some friends of ours who may be coming to the end of a very dark period in their lives.  The other was that my garage is clean. One is possibly a bigger positive […]

Dear Teachers, Welcome back, staff of Lakeshore High!  I hope you had a terrific summer and that you’re excited for another great year!  Remember how important your job is, and that our community respects and appreciates what you do here.  Some of you may be feeling discouraged after last week’s “Teachers are Lazy, Inept, Leeches […]

I would carry around a recording of a hawk’s cry, and play it every time I entered a room. I would litter, and when people looked at me funny, say, “Problem?” I would open a casino advertising an “authentic Indian experience.”  Then I would make the games extra hard to win.  If someone did win, […]

Here in the US we have a very little known right called Jury Nullification.  The right is this: a jury has the right to declare someone accused of a crime not guilty, even if they believe he did commit the crime.  Not only can they do so, they don’t have to justify why.  The Judge […]

Hey, remember playing Battleship when you were a kid?  Remember the subtlety; the intricate, complex layers; the sense of narrative?  The feeling that you weren’t just playing a game, your were telling a story – creating a world? No?  Huh.  Weird.  You remember it going a little more like this? “A8.” “Miss. C1.” “Miss.  J6.” […]

With NASA ending the shuttle program and Virgin Galactic announcing its progress toward civilian space flights yesterday, it truly seems we’re at a turning point in the development of space travel.  It seems like a good time to offer just a few reflections on space travel and its implications. I think the end of the […]

Here’s the thing about Independence Day that I love:  I love the actual day it commemorates, and its relationship to the very idea of independence and autonomy.  Here’s what I mean by that: Our independence day doesn’t celebrate the end of a war, or the day we were “granted” liberty.  It reflects instead the moment […]

The other day I got a phone call from a guy here who’s sort of a film/modeling/TV liaison, asking if I’d be interested in auditioning for a series of commercials.  Now, obviously, commercials are hardly the most riveting things, challenging things, certainly not the most dignified things.  They can be fun to do sometimes, though. […]