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…
I play fighting games pretty seriously. I’ve been dedicated to getting better at them ever since my uncle double-perfected me in Street Fighter 2 back in 1993. And while I’ve never been the best, I’ve been pretty good at the various fighting games I’ve played over the years and felt like I could at least…
Before college, the longest amount of time I’d ever spent outside of Connecticut was nine consecutive days. I knew that things were different in other places, but I still took it for granted that I could get all the stuff I knew in Connecticut pretty much anywhere I might go. I didn’t go very far…
Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be about peace on earth or anything like that. Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting peace on earth. On some level, I do, but it’s a very vague, diffused feeling. It’s not a real wish. I always feel like it’s a cheat when people say they wish for…
I work in a school. One of the students was telling me all about her family’s Elf on the Shelf. He’s apparently very silly. He hides in the dog’s bed, hangs from the light fixtures, and even hung out in the microwave one morning. That sounds dangerous to me, but who am I to tell…
I’m trying to post something every day. I’m too busy to be doing it in any organized fashion. I’m pretty much just winging it. I’ll see or hear something during the course of my day and then write about it that evening. Nothing at all struck me today. So, I’m writing about the fact that…
One of the standard tropes in movies, songs, television shows, books, basically in all of media, is kissing under the mistletoe at Christmastime. If popular media is any guide, half the world got their first kiss under some mistletoe (while the other half got it playing Spin the Bottle). It’s so common that it makes…
2021 has been a weird year and, so far, December has been especially weird. People who know me or read this blog regularly know I love the holidays. But, even though it’s December 11th and I’ve been posting every day in December, I’ve barely mentioned Christmas. It’s come up in three posts, but only incidentally….
