In September, 1897, an eight year-old girl named Virginia O’Hanlon, at her father’s urging, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus was real. In what became the most reprinted editorial of all time, Francis Pharcellus Church, a member of the Sun’s editorial staff, penned the response. Without … Read more
The title of today’s post is also the name of a comedy album by Dana Gould in which he claims there is nothing about which jokes cannot be made. To make his point, the title track explains how he atoned for once calling a classmate “retarded.” To make amends, he donated $5,000 to a charity … Read more
What a week!! Not just for Donald Trump, but also for yours truly. Just one more experience proving that we should all practice what we preach. While teaching a course about imaginative problem solving, I would tell students to make sure they did not mistake symptoms for the root cause. Yet that’s exactly what I … Read more
The 2020 Democratic primary season is officially open and already candidates are under attack both from within and outside the party. Saturday night, Donald Trump one-upped his already racist labeling of Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas,” suggesting she would be more effective by posting Instagram videos from sites such as Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen. … Read more
Every time I think about a 30 foot concrete wall, my memory takes me back to a personal experience in early 1984. At the time, I was director of community development and housing for the State of Texas. On December 18, 1983 Texas experienced a historic deep-freeze with below freezing temperatures for 12 consecutive days. … Read more