I wrote this a while back, but watching the ecstatic crowds in St. Peter’s Square has inspired me to repost it. More than a billion Catholics worldwide are celebrating the election of a new leader, Pope Francis, and they represent just a fraction of the world’s believers. People believe for many reasons, and beliefs vary… Read more
The Washington Post, my local newspaper, ran a fascinating and unusual front page story this morning. The article focused on a recent phenomenon at Alice Deal Middle School called Cups. Cups is a clapping game, in which children—mostly girls—beat out a rhythm on upturned cups, then turn them over and slam then on the table,… Read more
September 11 The main drag through Pasadena Peninsula is called Mountain Road. Also known as state highway 177, it is the only way in and out of many Magothy River communities, including ours on Cornfield Creek. It’s heavily-traveled, fast and homely, dotted with service stations and supply shops and dubious diners and karaoke bars. It’s… Read more
September 4 When you look down on Maryland’s Magothy River from a satellite, its shape resembles a dead shrub, stripped of all its foliage. All that remain are the thick, silhouetted trunk and lots of spiky, jagged branches. Cornfield Creek, where my wife and I live, is one jagged branch on that ill-fated shrub. It’s… Read more
August 24 There was a boating accident right off our creek this week. I’m surprised we didn’t hear it, it was that close. Two powerboats collided head-on, just around the point on Sillery Bay. It’s said that one boat emerged from the creek at high speed, and when it rounded the point, came bow to… Read more
August 17 I live on Cornfield Creek, a small tidal tributary of the Maryland’s Magothy River. We wouldn’t have called this a creek where I grew up. Creeks were narrow streams of moving water, often rocky and noisy. Cornfield Creek is wide and usually not too blowy, indistinguishable from many freshwater lakes I’ve known, except… Read more
It’s an honor to have my book, On Second Thought, reviewed in the august pages of The American Journal of Psychology, and by the distinguished philosopher and neuroscientist Mauro Maldonato. In keeping with AJP’s editorial philosophy, I in turn reviewed Dr. Maldonato’s fine volume, Decision Making, in the same issue. AJP was founded in 1887… Read more
My sister Maggie, at the Whitehall Mall, where we both worked years ago . . . selling books.