Day 982: Opening 40

originally published September 8, 2014 As some of you may have heard (I have griped about this rather frequently lately), the cold, icy grip of 40 is looming around my next corner, poised to wrestle my youth to the ground before September’s end, pummeling it with its grey-haired, middle-aged fists. But I’m okay with that. […]

Day 885: Video Predates The Radio Star

originally published June 3, 2014 Now a haven for reality shows and programming that has little or nothing to do with anything resembling music, MTV was once the go-to station for the ubiquitously 80’s art form known as the music video. But flipping one’s video rolodex back to the Buggles singing “Video Killed The Radio […]

Day 860: Ethically Steering The Hypothetical Death-Trolley

originally published May 9, 2014 Today I’d like to talk to you about math. Not “math” in the numbery, equationy, algebra-y way, but an ethical sort of math. Every time we find ourselves staring down the barrel of a moral conundrum, a little light flickers in our brain’s mathematical wing, weighing the heft of the […]

Day 856: When Death Sports A Wicked Grin

originally published May 5, 2014 There are souls who live lives of absolute anonymity, only to achieve the briefest flicker of fame through their final moments on the planet. For all the millions who have succumbed to heart disease, auto accidents and auto-erotic asphyxiation, somewhere there’s a story of a drunken teenager who died playing […]

Day 818: Brother Can You Spare Infinity Monkeys?

originally published March 28, 2014 Every so often I encounter one of those weary, soggy mornings when the lazy sun can’t seem to prop my fingers upon their ASDF-JKL; thrones to do their little thousand-word dance. Artificial stimulation helps – sometimes a throttle-jolt of caffeine, perhaps a bursting platter of bratwurst eggs benedict, even one […]

Day 815: Warriors Of Virtue

originally published March 25, 2014 While the bulk of our news sources have us scouring the globe for a missing plane, watching for the next drunken act of buffoonery by Toronto’s mayor or collectively pretending that Kim & Kanye’s pampered offspring has any relevance to anything, the mainstream western media has skipped a few stories. […]

Day 790: Pissing Away The Profits – Worst Business Decisions Part 1

originally published February 28, 2014 The secret to business success lies in making good decisions. I have no doubt that thousands of qualified individuals could offer monumentally wiser business advice than this, but in that most general, inarguable, obvious-even-to-a-schmuck-like-me way, it all comes down to decisions. Some culture-shaping decisions were outright brilliant, like JVC and […]

Day 769: Happy Birthday To Possibly Both Of You

originally published February 7, 2014 Every so often I like to write an article about math. This is not because I like math (I don’t) or because I unearth a specific gem of unique adrenaline when I reach the conclusion of a math problem (I experience no such thing). I write about math simply to […]

Day 732: Whips & Chains & Donkeys & Hugs – It Must Be January

originally published January 1, 2014 It’s a new year! And in most parts of the world that also means it’s a new month – the twelfth entry in my Monthly Observances series. After today’s article completes the series you can now sprinkle your entire calendar with heaps of celebrations you’d never previously imagined. Raise a […]

Day 721: Skymall Gift Ideas For The Tardy

originally published December 21, 2013 We are rapidly approaching the glorious end of the Christmas shop-fest, that time of year when we pour too much of our paycheck into gifts people generally don’t need but are too polite to turn down. Unfortunately, these are the grisly days when you might find yourself on the receiving […]