“In 1967, Abbie Hoffman and hundreds of fellow anti-war protesters encircled the Pentagon in a mock-ceremonious exorcism. Hoffman’s plan was to lift that squat office building 300 feet, give it a whirl, and…

“I’ve never been one to stand on protocol, for though I’d never urinate in a bath, I might in the shower. I’ve concluded, henceforth, that my expedient approach to behavior has been acquired,…

“It surely must be lonely at the top, and that prospect is one reason I never sought to rise from the professoriate to the administration. The pay was tempting but just the prospect…

Skip the B.S.  By Skip Eisiminger “One night, when I was still in the army, I was driving the mid-shift out to our intercept site on the West German border to relieve the…

“As inadequate a representation as one letter is of a year’s work, there are worse ways to evaluate people. In the 17th century, Harvard graduated students by their social rank, not their grade-point…

Skip the B.S. By Skip Eisiminger “In the 1970s, every male swimmer wanted to be Mark Spitz. In the 1972 Olympics, Spitz had won seven gold medals, breaking seven world records in the…

Skip the B.S. By Skip Eisiminger “The notion of cold fire lurking in flint was intriguing and remains so. Often, when my shovel strikes a stone in the garden and a spark flares…

Skip the B.S. By Skip Eisiminger “My aunt Clarice, a proponent of keeping the faith (to oneself), was the first woman in the state of Georgia granted a pilot’s license. I was unaware…

Skip the B.S. By Skip Eisiminger “Beyond the ‘hugging,’ I recommend my own version of ‘shuttle diplomacy.’ Instead of a diplomat flying back and forth between, say, Jerusalem and Tehran, I’d put some…

Skip the B.S. By Skip Eisiminger “There’s the son of Bertrand Russell who crocheted himself a pair of pants from a giant ball of string he’d saved. There’s Flannery O’Connor, at age six,…