Making the Most of Science:

Oct. 29, 2020

The Prequel and Sequel, Combined The Power of Mudwrestling to Interrupt a Rescue By the terms of a long-running dream, scientists were going to rescue us from our feuds and quarrels. When we lost our footing and sank into the swamp of squabbling, scientists would show us how to pull...

Did Anyone Else Notice?

Oct. 22, 2020

And, if so, Will You Get in Touch and Tell Me? Explanation: A One-Step Bewilderment Reduction Program Remember when you used to go to movie theaters? If you got there early, while you waited for the film you actually wanted to see, you sat and watched trailers for upcoming films...

Lifelong Learning On Halloween:

Oct. 15, 2020

Unleashing The Hidden Power Of A Goofy Holiday My goal has been to encourage jointness, to push people to think of affiliations, rather than to operate as solo entrepreneurs. The words of A. Bartlett Giamatti, President of Yale, 1978-1986, and host of annual Halloween Parties at the President’s House Celebrating...

This Has Been A Test

Oct. 8, 2020

If This Had Been an Actual Emergency, It Would Have Been Impossible to Distinguish It from All the Other Emergencies Synonyms for “Testy”: Choleric, crabby, cranky, cross, crotchety, fiery, grouchy, grumpy, irascible, irritable, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, quick-tempered, short-tempered, snarky, waspish. Test Anxiety: Given the power they possessed,Tests for a...

Sandy Greenhills West, Urbana Asphalt West, and Suburbia Greenlawn West Take a Family Trip Through Time

Oct. 1, 2020

Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic, but destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country. William Jennings Bryan, “Cross of Gold Speech,” 1896 William Jennings Bryan’s rhetoric may...

Where Bipartisanship Finds a Refuge:

Sept. 24, 2020

A Rendezvous with The Western Governors Association Is There A Doctorate-Holder on The Plane? When flight attendants ask, “Is there a doctor on the plane?” I do not reach for my call button. I am fully aware that I am the wrong kind of doctor, the kind that is no...

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love a Good Argument

Sept. 17, 2020

For my first quarter-century on the planet, I fled from arguments and disputes, manifesting all the courage and toughness we associate with rabbits. When I saw a disagreement start up, I was soon lost in worry over the misfortunes it was sure to produce. And then liberation arrived. Now, when...

Accustomed As I Am To Public Speaking

Sept. 10, 2020

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now my pleasure to introduce to you. . . myself.” In this strange year of 2020, we now present to you the 20th posting for “Not My First Rodeo.” Getting in step with this proliferation of “twenties,” this essay consists of twenty tales of my...

Don’t Get Your Hopes Up:

Sept. 3, 2020

A Call to Rebellion against the Peril of Exaggerated Expectations Coronavirus is not done with us until we have a vaccine. A headline in USA Today, June 17, 2020, but also a statement that is omnipresent in our world today The key to life is crushing expectations before they crush...

Humor, Honesty, and Higher Education:

Aug. 27, 2020

A Guide to Emotional Multi-Tasking In humor, life is redefined and accepted. Irony and satire provide much keener insights into a group’s collective psyche and values than do years of research. When a people can laugh at themselves and laugh at others and hold all aspects of life together without...

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