I recently had to teach a unit on Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I first read the book back in high school, my junior year, I think. I remember thinking it was fine but not really my style. Even back then, I fundamentally disagreed with Golding’s views on human nature. Rereading it now,…
I published this piece last year, shortly after the Olympics, on Mentriz.com. I’m not sure what happened, but Mentriz no longer seems to exist. So, I’m reposting it here for the time being. The past year and a half have been seemingly great for mental health advocates. Starting with the onset of the global pandemic…
I bought a house around eleven years ago. It was that crazy winter in Connecticut where we were getting about a foot of snow twice a week (at least that’s what it felt like). I knew there was a big tree in the front yard when I bought it, but the mounds of snow somehow…
I almost never remember my dreams. It’s so rare that I wrote about it the last time I remembered a dream. That was December 30, 2019 (a pre-pandemic dream!). Well, it happened again last night. And this one was truly bizarre. It’s a bit jumbled and confused as dreams tend to be, but I’ll recreate…
I’ve been lucky, healthwise. Like anyone else, I get sick from time to time. I’ve dealt with depression, as I’ve written about before. But I’ve basically been healthy my whole life. (I am knocking on wood as I write this.) Sometimes I’ve felt really, really bad. Depression will do that. As will the flu and…
We had a very satisfying snow today. It feels like it’s been years since we’ve had one. Given that so many people wrongly believe that they don’t like snow, I thought it may be worthwhile explaining what makes a snow satisfying. For starters, there has to be enough snow for it to be a satisfying…
I know, I know, smoking is bad for you. It yellows teeth, it makes your breath and hair stink, it causes cancer and other diseases, and all other manner of problems. It also looks cool as hell. That’s not an endorsement of smoking, but just an acknowledgement that some of the coolest people (see above)…
My son is pretty good at videogames. Honestly, he’s really good. I didn’t realize it until a couple of years ago, but he’s been better than me at games for most of his life. To quote the great Son Goku, he’s like, a hundred times stronger than I was at his age. In fact, he’s…
The political left has an anti problem. They are anti lots and lots of things: antifascism, antiracism, anticapitalism, antiwar, anticorruption, and on and on and on. All those antis are fine (although some are more fine than others), but I think they form a large part of the left’s branding problem. The right is anti…
Gym Teac Sorry, physical education professionals are not given the respect they deserve. There’s the old joke, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.” Nothing could be further from reality, though. Despite the spoofs and stereotypes, they quietly do about the most difficult job in education. Let’s start…
