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The Non-Spatial Continuum on Which Events Occur in Irreversible Order: Time
“After a friend recommended that I reacquaint myself with Judy Collins’ poignant ballad ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes?’ I found myself in what many of her fans will recognize: a musically induced…
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On Sacred Grounds: Coffee
“‘All aboard,’ cried the conductor as the steam whistle underscored his cry. ‘Oh, dear, the train’s leaving,’ said a traveler at the lunch counter, ‘and my coffee’s too hot to drink.’ ‘Drink mine,…
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Haptic Teams Win More Games: Touch
“Physicists tell us that, in fact, no real touch is possible. Thus, when lips meet, they say, two electric fields are interacting, electrons are grazing electrons. Perhaps so, but if a pretty server…
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Grateful for Every Plateful: Prayer
“Claire has never forgotten the panic he felt when, at age eleven, stretched out on an operating table, the surgeon who was about to excise his inflamed tonsils, asked everyone in the OR…
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Sky Dye Sampler: Blue
“The history of blue begins with its absence. In any aboriginal language, blue will be the sixth color term to join its primary and secondary kin. I’ve often wondered what took so long…
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Perilous Crossing, 1981: Saigon to Greenville
“The engine ran for one day, and it broke down. We tried to fix it, but it was helpless. After that, we just let the boat drifted to wherever it wanted to. We…
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Tran’s Journal: A Worth Above Rubies
“The engine ran for one day, and it broke down. We tried to fix it, but it was helpless. After that, we just let the boat drifted to wherever it wanted to. We…
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Striking While the Irony Is Hot: Reversals
“Finally, irony is fun . . . as when Jack Nicholson says his mother never appreciated the irony of calling him ‘a son of a bitch.’ In one fell swoop, Nicholson winks at…
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Looking for a Label: Cynicism to Optimism
“I admit that I’m among the first to collect bad news to share with my wife and classes, but I do not feel that the Sermon on the Mount is on the rocks,…
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Sparkplug to Bucephalus: Horses
“Though horses started disappearing from America’s roads and fields about a century ago, Pegasus and Winnie are still kicking up their heels in English prose, poetry, and speech. Indeed, after studying the impact…