“I have heard that your first fall off of a horse may determine what kind of rider you will be.” I didn’t write that, my daughter Anna did. She continued: “My heart dropped as I watched Sally fall to the ground, but I knew I had to stand back and watch to see how she […]
Self-Centered, Certain, and Wrong
What I thought would be the most important event of the summer, my sixtieth birthday, turned out to be an afterthought. Starting off the chain of events that got in the way of my big day was the birth of our first grandson. He was named Dominic after his great-grandfather, although there was some discussion […]
A Smile and Other Unique Identifiers
I have always been known for my smile. It is a unique characteristic that has always distinguished me and occasionally benefited me. For example, in the 70s I was working long hours in a very remote area, and rarely got into town. On one of those infrequent trips, I stopped by a Bank of America […]
A Brief History of Investing
Reading A Brief History of Time was like taking the red pill offered by Morpheus in the 1999 movie The Matrix. Having recently seen Stephen Hawkins’ obituary in The Economist, I was reminded of the impact his book had on my life. The reality of theoretical physics, as explained by Hawkins, is a different paradigm than […]
That’s Not the Beer Talking
“You have no respect for cognitive reverie, you know that?” At the time I saw the movie, A Beautiful Mind, I had no idea what ‘reverie’ meant. However, when John Nash’s roommate retorted, “Yes, but…I have enormous respect for…beer,” I got that. And so did the John Nash character, because it drew him out of […]
Ya Think!
My wife and I used to receive compliments for being perfect parents… then our third child came along and no one ever mentioned that again. It wasn’t that she was bad, it was just that she had a different way of learning. Her oldest sister learned by logic. Sister number two learned by observing. And […]
Solving Problems
I hadn’t been applauded for kissing my wife and walking down an aisle since our wedding day. However, this time the aisle in question was on an airplane instead of in a church. And the mood was more factious than festive because a family had been split-up instead of joined together. A mother (with infant […]
Mind the Gap: Look Right
Upon entering the London Underground for the first time, I had no idea what “Mind the Gap” meant until I saw it written on the station platform as I crossed the gap to the train. Being visual, I got “Look Right” immediately. It appears that many Americans are prone to the pedestrian’s equivalent of a […]