Bring on the $5 Gallon of Gas
“What this country needs is a good, seven-cent nickel.” –Groucho Marx Last week, I came just short of my first $60 transaction at the gas station. It was startling. What’s …
“Always too nostalgic. Now, just living.”
Above is my six-word memoir. The idea of writing autobiographies using six words or less is being promoted by Smith Magazine. They are hosting thousands upon thousands of these little reductions, …
Writing Metrics
On the subject of writing, productivity, and creativity, I recently came across a simple, obvious trick to shut off that internal editor: write it out longhand. I tend to avoid longhand writing. My …
Old Dishwasher, Free
I drove past a house a couple weeks ago that had an old dishwasher out in front with a sign on it reading, “Free.” It made me laugh. I presume that this household got a new dishwasher and …
I Am What I Am Becoming
The film Juno has some really great lines, but my favorite is when she confesses to her parents about being pregnant, her father says, “I thought you were the kind of girl who knew when to say …
Top of the Charts
Thanks to detritus for pointing out the fun culture of song charts on flickr. Photo credit: mod_complex, The Ramones
Bartleby Syndrome
One of my favorite short stories is “Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville. It’s about a man who comes to work as a scrivner in a law office. A scrivener was a human …
Capturing the Flight of an Electron on Video
Swedish scientists recently announced the ability to capture the image of a single electron. This was previously impossible due to the electron’s high speed and sensitivity to energy. …
When the Enemy Calls America
“To put it bluntly [long pause] to put it bluntly, if the enemy is calling into America, we really need to know what they’re saying, and we need to know what they’re …
The Sadness of Possession
What is it in us that makes us want to hold onto things? If we enjoy something, we want to know it’s going to be there, where we left it, to tickle those neurons again and again. There’s …