Uneasy Rhetoric

For a couple years, I studied Welsh. You could say it was because I wanted to learn that funny language that inspired countless cut-rate fantasy writers to replace all of the i’s with y’s and use lots of w’s to make people and place names more exotic.
You’d be wrong. It’s a deeply poetic [...]

I left an evening meeting in plenty of time to catch my bus. I had four blocks and about ten minutes to get to my stop. Given that I can comfortably cover a block in less than two minutes, I should have had no trouble to get there. Here’s the math problem: [...]

The July 2007 issue of Sunset Magazine has a sidebar titled “Your bug questions answered.” There is a website, www.whatsthatbug.com, that will help you identify your bugs. If you’ve searched the site and are still stumped, you can even send a picture in.
As you may recall, I was wondering about the bug I [...]

In my never ending quest to bust the chops of each and every “ways to save gas” list that doesn’t list “drive less” or “walk more” as a way, I give you this list of 29 ways to save gas. Check out numbers 25 and 26:

Drive less
Here comes the discussion we don’t like to [...]

If you’re lucky enough to own a no-turn mattress, stop reading. If, like me, you buy your mattresses at the local Swedish superstore or at an unmarked storefront with broken windows, you’ll need to turn them once in a while. Ikea recommends that you turn your mattress every two to three months (after [...]