I would like to offer some thoughts as to why the United States is not winning Mosconi Cups. There are many reasons of course and for one person to pretend to have all the answers would be presumptuous. Of course we can win again but how? Actually, we might never win again. Does the game … Continue reading
The Mongol Rally
(Letter to the editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine) My girlfriend is a Yalie cum laude and a Fulbright scholar and I am, by the skin of my teeth, a graduate of “State”. She gets the Yale Alumni Magazine with articles about Keynesian economics, cancer cures and neuroscience while I get alumni bulletins with cheerleaders … Continue reading
The Rise and Fall of Amerika
The Rise and Fall of Amerika Or a Brief Chronology of the Origins of World War III by Arthur Bacon Friday, 20 January 2017: just after noon, after having taken the Oath of Office and walked part of the way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, Donald Trump goes directly to the Oval … Continue reading
The Debates!
Lets face it; we all love hating Donald Trump. There used to be crucifixions, Christians and lions and gladiators, and then bear baiting, and then actual staged gunfights. There’s the Super-bowl and March Madness, the US Open and Mayweather-Pacquiao … but that stuff is tiddly winks compared to the pornographic thrills awaiting us this fall. … Continue reading
Adolescent Stress And How To Ameliorate It
A great deal is being written about adolescent stress these days, and its concomitant long-term adverse health effects. I would like to examine where this stress is coming from and postulate that stress might be good, notwithstanding the fact that nothing in excess is good whether it is too much work, wealth, fun, sun, sleep, … Continue reading
Common Scents
I saw a man and a woman walking up the trail from Carkeek Canyon toward the parking lot yesterday as we were about to pull out and the tranquility of the moment was lost in hypocrisy, mine and theirs. We love to walk in Carkeek Canyon at least once a month. It is just a … Continue reading
One God
Since you go to a church, any church, I think you should consider a few things about your belief in God, His “son”, The Holy Ghost, virgin births, The Assumption, transubstantiation and His famously inspired book, the Bible, which will never be mentioned in your church (or any other church). Think of this as a … Continue reading
Trayvon Martin: Letter to the Editor of The New York Times
Every one of us with a three digit IQ knows who killed Trayvon Martin; the NRA. The NRA is the hand-maiden for the gun industry and lobbied strenuously for “stand your ground.” No matter how many American children die of handguns every year (about 3,000) Colt, Winchester, Remington, and Ruger want to sell more guns … Continue reading
Tim’s Vermeer. Penn and Teller.
First of all, what a dreadfully pretentious, expensive, meaningless, stupid idea to begin with; to make a copy of Vermeer’s The Music Lesson! If the raison d’etre of this movie were to illustrate thoroughly to the lay public what art is not, then this might have been a worthwhile project, albeit ridiculously expensive and time-consuming. … Continue reading
Why Stephen Lyman Is Not An Artist* (Letter to a Philistine)
When you told me that Stephen Lyman was “the second best-selling painter in America” and I replied, without ever having seen any of the man’s work, that “he must not be much of an artist” you took umbrage at, what you said, was my unqualified presumptuousness. The next day when we went to see Mr. … Continue reading