Monthly Archives: March 2007

This is the cover of the “users manual” for my new mouse: It’s a mouse! Not a pointing device, a mouse!

Those of you not fortunate enough to live in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts may have heard about our new Governor, Deval Patrick. Only the second African American Governor in American history, Patrick, a first time candidate for any office, … Continue reading →

How does this sell? You can buy chocolate, or vanilla, or strawberry, in any proportions.But instead, you choose to get exactly equal portions of each, all shoved in the same container, why? Why would you limit yourself like that? You … Continue reading →

Weightlifting has many benefits. The obvious one is increase of muscle mass. Most people don’t realize the real work of the body is not during the workout, but after. In a really good workout with weights, you work the muscles … Continue reading →

This is a piece of marketing material I got recently from some stupid company. It abounds with poor reasoning. Does your [system metric] surpass a 70% succes rate (outperforming the industry average of just 30%)? Does your [other system metric] … Continue reading →

I was just listening to a cool song, “Jack gets up” by Leo Kottke. It has a line in it, If you look in the mirror, it’s your fathers face, and the thin grin, and the thin grin… I’m at … Continue reading →

Brothers and Sisters: The Dad dies to start it off. Six Feet Under: The Dad dies to start it off. And then someone new dies at the beginning of every episode. Desperate Housewives: The neighbor dies to start it off, … Continue reading →

… and it looks like my new universal remote control The number of remote controls on our couch-side table is truly horrifying. There are so many that we have no space left to put down our water glasses or soda … Continue reading →

NYT’s Ethicist column last week talked about blogging. Not surprsingly, he got it completely wrong. Here’s the question: I interview high-school seniors who apply to my alma mater. I routinely Google these students and discovered that one posted information on … Continue reading →

No matter how hard you try, you will never be one hundredth as cool as this. And oh yeah, I was in a little band called Queen. OK, OK, My readers don’t have Times Select. Brian May is one of … Continue reading →

The New York Times had an entertaining article on why playing the lottery is worth it. It agrees with my point of view. One dollar now and then is a cheap price to play for the fun of dreaming about … Continue reading →

Happy birthday to me — thanks for the wishes all! To celebrate, I officially started wearing glasses today. Gads. Combined with just a tinge of grey hair on the temples, there is no doubt I have been graduated to the … Continue reading →

From CNN.com: Only Van Halen’s second lead singer, Sammy Hagar, and ex-bass player Michael Anthony turned up for their induction. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen has just gone into rehab and original lead singer David Lee Roth stayed away in a … Continue reading →

We recently bought a new refrigerator. Things have changed in the refrigerator industry, I’ll tell you that. For all the gimmicks, most of the modern refrigerator designs are clearly worse. Freezers ought to be on the bottom. That’s common sense. … Continue reading →

You’re usually right, that’s what happens. Assuming is usually correct. You save a lot of time and energy and keep yourself from looking like an idiot. If you go more than ten minutes without assuming something, you have severe brain … Continue reading →

(This one’s been sitting around for a while. It’s in response to a November 6, 2006 editorial, so it’s not very timely at all. But what the heck.) This op-ed demonstrates why sociology is not considered a “hard” science. The … Continue reading →

Fantastic legal correspondence, from somethingawful.com All real. My lawyer, Leonard “J.” Crabs, has advised me to exercise my 16th Amendment rights on this issue. He said it’s “more than three times better” than the standard fifth Amendment, so my chances … Continue reading →

This is the standard shower control in many gyms and hotels: This is about the worst controller their ever could be. A simple person might look at this and think, hmm… the big pointy thing is pointing to hot. It … Continue reading →