I saw that Barbara Ehrenreich died three weeks ago. I was saddened. I enjoyed Ehrenreich as an author, although I disagreed with her on just about everything. I especially enjoyed her “Nickel and Dimed” piece of muckraking investigative journalism, and read the first chapter with my economics students each year. I saw that not long … Read more
I read of the death of the author Norah Vincent last week. It was unusual in that she actually died in early July of this year, but the news of her passing was released only a few weeks ago. I enjoyed Norah’s work earlier in this century. She was a lesbian tending towards the libertarian … Read more
Exercising in Extreme Heat to Put Steel in Your Spine It was approximately 105 degrees outside, according to my phone. This was the hottest ever recorded temperature in Camarillo for September 4th, according to news reports. I was there to play tennis on court one, which was supposedly some ten degrees or so hotter than … Read more
I work for the government, so I know what I mean when I say that the government often makes rules so stupid they should be ignored. And the majority of the Covid regulations of the past two years have been stupid in the extreme. Here in California they closed all the parks and tennis courts, … Read more
All last week I was out of contact with the larger world. No Internet, no newspapers, nada. I was on a cruise in the Caribbean and was mostly in the middle of the ocean, and I loved it! I could just relax and enjoy my vacation. The outside world would still be there when I … Read more
So in a few short weeks I will go back to work in my 28th year of teaching. My classroom will be full of new students ready for a new semester. And it will be my 23rd at my current school. All of them in the same classroom, no less. The same 70′ by 50′ … Read more
The U-Shaped Happiness Curve, touted by researchers, claims that the data is clear, across cultures and even species. The numbers show that on average life satisfaction drops during midlife and begins its recovery around age 50, reaching its peak at the end of life. Younger people tend to be happy and the eldery tend to … Read more
I got a late start in the parenting game. I was 36 when I first got married (I was cautious), and I was 39 when my firstborn took her first breaths outside the womb. I was 42 when my second and last child was born. Yes, I am an old dad. I am sure there … Read more
Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was the penultimate act in driving your doctrinaire radical feminist off the rails. Roe v. Wade is gone, and the feminists are irate. And as I have always hated feminists, I enjoyed the spectacle. No, I’m not talking about hating the sort of “feminist” … Read more
Dear Andrew, Good morning. I write to you today as the United States Supreme Court releases its New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen decision. I read your article from a few weeks ago in the Atlantic Monthly about guns in American life and would say a thing or two about it. … Read more
When you fail to do something you were supposed to do, it can nag at you. But the longer you put it off, the harder it can be to get around to doing. I have not been to the dentist for over a year, and I almost always make my every-six-month visit. But last year … Read more
I returned home last night from my weekly men’s tennis night to find my younger daughter exhausted and overwrought. Her eyes were ringed red with fatigue, and she sat down at the kitchen table and burst out crying. It took me by surprise. I wondered if something bad had happened to my daughter that day, … Read more
So I turned 55-years old yesterday, and my father turns 83 tomorrow; we had our joint birthdays this weekend overlooking the ocean at my father’s house in Laguna Beach. We tend to do this each year during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Beyond our birthdays, this annual celebratory weekend heralds the beginning of summer. I … Read more
I sometimes think I am. I am a public school teacher, and so I am in a job where I have little control over my working conditions. The traits entrepreneurs need – decisiveness, risk taking, incisive intelligence, competitiveness – don’t necessarily pay off for teachers. It goes the other way, too. The traits teachers need … Read more
False Prophets of Hope and Ineffectual Shortcuts to Happiness “Extremism means borders beyond which life ends, and a passion for extremism, in art and in politics, is a veiled longing for death.” Milan Kundera So I made the mistake last night of reading the 180 page manifesto written by the 18-year old man-child who murdered … Read more
Almost three years ago I spent much of my summer training my body and preparing my mind for the United States Tennis Association sectionals for Southern California in Costa Mesa, California. I dedicated myself to get ready for the big weekend starting on August 3, 2019. And then it arrived. I played two hard matches … Read more
What does it mean to be a parent? Often I think to serve well as a parent means ideally to be mature, possess self-control, and have good judgment. This might seem self-evident, my dear reader. But it is also vague. What does self-control and good judgment look like in practice? Well, let me be specific: … Read more
On the first day of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, I wrote that I hoped Russian dictator Vladimir Putin “rots in hell” and urged the Ukrainians to send lots of Russian boys “home in body bags.” The Ukrainian armed forces have done that and more in the past 56 days – killing some 7,000 … Read more
(This is the second of a 2 Part Essay. Read Part 1 here.) I have never made much money, taking into account my level of education. Public school teachers are not paid all that much money in the United States. That is one of the many negatives to working as a teacher. I can hear … Read more
There are moments in youth when you make choices that alter the trajectory of your life. You might not recognize it at the time, but years later you can appreciate where a turning point took place. In this essay I will explain how my life changed so much for the better when I decided to … Read more
I wrote recently about adversity in competitive sports. But I was really using sport as a metaphor to talk about dealing with adversity in life generally. In this essay I would like to add to last week’s post to flesh out a fuller picture of how I see it. For the vast majority of us … Read more
So I wrote late last fall about the impending darkness of winter, and my ability to get my workouts completed in the dark and the cold. Now we are on the other side: it is April and spring, and the sun is out for longer. Driving by the tennis courts last night and they were … Read more
In a corner of my garage I do tennis-specific workouts, and I have done these for years. I have on the walls some photographs of myself after after having won tournaments, or other such important competitive moments. More importantly, I have some quotes posted there that I have particularly important and which I constantly want … Read more
I recently was informed in writing that some members of the local community are pouring over my personal webpage to find objectionable opinions. They are calling into question my fitness to serve in my current job. This is not the first time this has happened: Watch what you write, one sympathetic soul warned me. “Be … Read more
It is what I would have wanted to see: a large army built on dictatorial fiat with conscripted soldiers attacking a neighbor unnecessarily, getting their asses handed to them by a smaller but motivated army of volunteers in a democracy fighting for and on their home turf. At the beginning of the war the conventional … Read more
I woke up last night around 2:30 am and I was AWAKE. I lay there for a few minutes and realized I would not be falling asleep again anytime soon. This happens now and again. I have no idea why. Occasional trouble sleeping is a problem which arrived to me in my fifties. I try … Read more
Yesterday I read an excellent article by George Packer where he says, among other things, the following: “We’ll need to help kids restore at least part of their crushed attention spans. If remote learning taught parents anything, it was that staring at a screen for hours is a heavy depressant, especially for teenagers. One day, … Read more
I see new parents and I shake my head. I see them pushing a baby-stroller, or chasing down a scrambling toddler, and I think to myself the following thought: “There but for the grace of God go I…” Being a parent to babies, toddlers, and little kids is so exhausting. It sucks you dry. I … Read more
I talked to a childhood friend the other day by telephone. I was surprised when he explained to me that his 21-year old son was near disconsolate over the recent fighting in Ukraine. His son was tearful much of the time and had trouble sleeping, my friend told me. The kid spent hours glued to … Read more
Three days ago I watched Vladimir Putin’s incredible speech about Ukraine, Russia, and NATO. No matter what misinformation Putin might give out, I knew by then that he would order Russian forces to invade Ukraine. Two days ago I wrote an angry screed, “The Ukrainians Will Fight Alone,” about all this. Ninety minutes ago the … Read more