Life in general

Red Beats Blue!

News we hope we can use from the Chronicle of Higher Education: Observing that athletes who wore red uniforms in the 2004 Olympics were more likely to win when competing against athletes wearing blue uniforms, researchers at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, in Romania, decided to pit the two colors against each […]

The Availability Of Funds

I bought my first house way back when Jimmy Carter was president. As I recall interest rates were around 20%, and so I came up with the bright idea of leaving the cash I needed for the down payment in an interest bearing account until the last possible minute. My plan, brilliant in theory if […]

False Allusion

Virginia speeders are nothing if not literary. From today’s Charlottesville Daily Progress (quoted material, from p. A7, is not online): High Speed Chase Ends With Crash … According to police reports, Deputy Rick McKinley was headed north on U.S. 29 when he noticed Glen Thomson, 23, driving about 80 mph on U.S. 29 south near […]

Joanne Jacobs In A Gingham Dress?

Well, she says no, but read the review (link may not last) of her new book, Our School, sort of suggesting Sally Field for the lead in the movie version, on OpinionJournal or at the book’s home page. ADDENDUM One passage in the review (and I believe one theme in the book) I think is […]

Sidney Morgenbesser

Sidney Morgenbesser, who taught philosophy at Columbia for many years, died recently at 82. I don’t know the field of philosophy well enough to know whether Sidney was an important philosopher, but I do know that anyone who ever had any contact with him (as I did briefly a number of years ago) will never […]

Jessie Graduates!

Daughter Jessie graduates from Bryn Mawr this weekend, and so my wife and I are headed up to Philadelphia today. As a result blogging will be light until the first of next week. (Please don’t feel obligated to send congratulations. After all, Helene and I freely admit that we couldn’t have done this without Jessie….)

Been Out Of Town + Congrats to Ms. Jessie

I apologize for leaving town without warning (you do care, don’t you?), but I went up to Philadelphia for the weekend, got back late Monday, and still haven’t caught up with email and other items. The occasion was one last set of discussions with daughter Jessie about her graduate school decision. Those of you who […]

A Jolting Development….

As I was writing about half an hour ago the house began to shake. Now I like to think I’ve written powerful stuff before, but it never had that effect. Also, as a veteran of many years in California (and one in Tokyo), I thought I recognized the culprit. Sure enough: Officials say at 3:59 […]

Warning! Travel Could Hazardous To Your Health!

Really. I check the weather sites with some frequency, especially when storms are predicted. But I don’t recall ever seeing a weather service statement like this one for Albemarle and Nelson counties, Virginia (we live near the border between them), even when Hurricane Isabel blew by recently: Albemarle VA-Nelson VA- … Winter Storm Warning in […]

Love and Confusion in Berkeley

The University of California has just instituted a new policy that bans “romantic or sexual” relationships between professors and their students. Apparently, this prohibtion is too complex for many on the faculty to understand. Like a lot of people on campus, Catherine Gallagher, a professor of English … , is confused. What precisely does the […]