February Done Right
I will go to great lengths to ward off the February blahs. In years past, I have decorated my home with tropical flourishes, distracted myself with games and group trips, tried to embrace winter with snowmobiling and “Doctor Zhivago” weekends. I have done all I can think to do, and February still comes... and stays. My pain is prolonged this year, as it is a Leap Election Year. This is when we make up for time...
Cultural Snobbery
From Vanity Fair: James Wolcott on Cultural Snobbery. In New York City (can't speak for the other metro systems across this great land), every subway car is a rolling library, every ride an opportunity to spy on the reading tastes of fellow passengers and make snap judgments that probably wouldn't hold up in court. Single women in their 30s and 40s gripping a teenage-vampire tale or a Harry Potter-they seem to be ha...
Upgrade Me: Are We Getting Better, Or Just Newer?
A confession: a couple of Wednesdays ago, I brought my laptop to work with me for one purpose - to download the latest iPhone update. Apple issued an upgrade to its iPhone software that day, which added such long-awaited features as Copy, Cut and Paste, Spotlight search, multimedia messaging, and a plethora of other add-ons to the already excellent operating system. (Yes, this is going to be a nerdy article.) ...
Bee Stung
Photo by Mark Bowen / Scripps National Spelling Bee I don't often wake up in a sweat from reliving the eighth grade. There's me, four-eyed, cowlicked and draped in an over-sized I.O.U. sweatshirt, facing the peercing gaze of a few hundred middle-schoolers and teachers, and waiting for the squad of judges to fire their next multisyllabic missile. "Multisyllabic. May I have the definition please? May I have th...
The Danish Gambit or How I Broke a Blood Vessel in My Brain
I've never thought of myself as having obsessive/compulsive/impulsive/addictive tendencies. Although, I listen to every sports podcast available on ESPN, watch any college basketball game the cable company will broadcast, buy shoes like most people buy coffee, and drink coffee like most people drink water. And forget the fact that I'm writing this column while glued to another season of American Idol, nursing a bottl...
Top Ten Reasons Real BooksAre Better Than e-Books
The Amazon Kindle and iPhone apps like Stanza are beginning to make inroads in the e-Book market. But nothing will ever really replace paper books. Why, you ask? 10. No need to wait until the pilot gives you permission to use personal electronic devices. 9. It's OK if you forget to charge your real book. 8. Unwrapping a download is so anti-climactic. 7. Speaking of which, it's hard to wrap a download. 6. Eye...
