I heard this story recently, and decided to share it with you. —– Several hundred years ago, a traveler was walking through the French countryside. He came to the site of the Cathedral of Chartres, which was being built. He entered the building site, and he saw a sculptor working. He asked the sculptor what […]
Omaha Beach
My wife asked me, “Can you take my Uncle Ricky to lunch?” Her Uncle Ricky is in his mid-90’s. We were at the hospital, visiting his wife. “Yes” was the right answer. I knew that, so I said yes. But I wasn’t really sure what to talk about. Ricky (born Phil, but I’ve never heard […]
Down To The River
I know a fellow who spent a year of his life living on the streets of Philadelphia. Let’s call him “K”. K is now an executive, and a widely respected member of his profession. Sometimes when he tells his story to other people, he reaches in his mouth and takes out half of his teeth, […]
I Heard The News Today
Thirty years ago today (January 28, 1986), the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just after liftoff. Everyone on board was killed. I was attending pharmacy school at the time. I remember walking into Griffith Hall, and everyone was standing around a TV screen. I asked what was going on, and someone told me that the shuttle […]
Help On The Way
We had a blizzard this weekend. We had 30 inches of snow between Friday night and Sunday morning. It was a top-5 snow event for us. My family and I started snow removal on Sunday morning. I was outside by 7am. I purchased an electric snowblower last year, so I thought I would be ok. […]
The Snowpocalypse
We are expecting some snow tomorrow night. It is supposed to last about 24 hours, and may bring up to 18 inches of accumulation. Let the hype begin. One sign of a big storm is that the media gives it a nickname. Past nicknames have included “Snowmageddon”, “Snowpocalypse”, and of course, “The Storm of the […]
My Powerball Jackpot
The Powerball jackpot for tomorrow night is now estimated to be at least 1.5 billion dollars. I’ve spent a little bit of time thinking about what I would do with my winnings. First a little bit of lottery math. The jackpot number is a pre-tax number, if you take it in annual installments. I don’t […]
The Bill of Responsibilities
In the Otemachi train station in central Tokyo, several subway lines converge. Trains pull up to the platform with hundreds of passengers who are rushing to work. There is one escalator that takes passengers up a 5-story rise to street level. When I first saw this escalator, I assumed that there would be a mad […]
Noise Reduction
I joined the 1K Club this year. The 1K Club are people who have flown 100,000 miles in a year. This year I have been to Tokyo 8 times, plus Paris, Turks and Caicos, New Orleans, and Dublin, Ireland. That is a total of 126,720 flight miles. This is the point where I should note […]
The Tortoise & The Hare
When I was little, I read a fable called The Tortoise and The Hare. You’ve read it too. There is a race between a Tortoise (a turtle) and a Hare (a rabbit). The tortoise is slow, and the Hare is fast. They line up to race, and everyone knows that the Hare is going to […]
