Old MacDonald Had A Farmers' Market — total self-sufficiency is a noble, misguided ideal

Every culture has its pathologies, and ours is self-reliance. From some mix of our frontier past, our Little House on the Prairie heritage, our Thoreauvian desire for solitude, and our amazing wealth we’ve derived a level of independence never seen before on this round earth. We’ve built an economy where we need no one else;…

Roomba Violates All Three Laws Of Roombotics

The laws of Roombotics, published on iRobot’s website, are basic ethical rules governing Roomba conduct. The first law states that the device “must not suck up jewelry or other valuables, or through inaction, allow valuables to be sucked up.” The second law prescribes that Roomba “must obey vacuuming orders given to it by humans except…

Digital tools were potential life savers during Va. Tech massacre

The Mercury News posted an Associated Press package that included a video news story, accounts from witnesses and a disturbing home-made cell phone video that recorded dozens of gun shots and angry and disturbed screaming, presumably from the gunman. Perhaps most troublesome was that whoever was shooting the cell phone video, actually moved toward the…

The Lost Art of Innocence

I may be nostalgic, but I’m not stupid. Today’s technologically superior, multi-million dollar monstrosities are, in almost every way, superior to anything that even the most creative guy could do in his basement on an old TI. But, without the full spectrum of gaming to be measured against, the games of the day really did…

Interfaith Community to Observe Holocaust Memorial Day

On Sunday, April 15, Westmoreland County residents will remember the victims of Nazism by observing Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Memorial Day. —Interfaith Community to Observe Holocaust Memorial Day (National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education) I just got back from taking my nine-year-old son to this service, which was very moving. The service began in the Congregation…

City Council

CITY COUNCIL is based on an actual city council meeting I covered while working for a small twice-a-week newspaper early in my career. Some of the items here have been fictionally enhanced for educational purposes. And, of course, some names have been changed to protect the foolish. Even as an assistant editor at this small…

A Dish Best Served Cold

“It’s almost always the first play I teach,” she said. “I do that because very often students have only encountered Shakespeare in high school and have a misunderstanding of him as safe, moral, and dull. This one really dislodges the idea that Shakespeare is full of eternal moral truths. It takes place in a different…

Pearls Before Breakfast

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time…

Coffee Table Books Meme

Got to Dance (autographed by the author, M. C. Helldorfer; illustrated by Hiroe Nakata) Has a Heart (Magic School Bus (Turtleback)) (Annie Capecki; illustrated by Carolyn Bracken) Zathura The Movie Deluxe Storybook (Zathura: The Movie) (adapted by David Seidman) Frederick (Leo Lionni) —Coffee Table Books Meme (CultureCat) My coffee table is deep in kid territory. If…

300 spears reviewer's attention

Perhaps the only thing that could have made this movie better would have been if Xerces, the God-king of the Persian army, had been played by John Stamos, the actor who played Uncle Jesse on Full House. Even the Spartans would have cowered beneath his seductive gaze and shining, well-combed hair. […] Not only did…