Ideas & Excuses

I have been a fan of Death Cab for Cutie for over a decade now. There is something about the haunted, hollow sound they make that strikes a cord with me. There is an innate sadness to the music, even [...]

Richard Brautigan's novel In Watermelon Sugar is a strange animal. Brautigan is a poet and he writes the novel as separate passages [...]

April is, as I’m sure you are all aware, National Poetry Month! And to celebrate I thought I would share some poetry with you. But let’s be perfectly clear, not my own. I once wrote poetry. Long lilting things full [...]

It is the last day of vacation and I am full of conflicting emotions. The first is relief. Everyone is exhausted, sunburnt, the money is gone; it feels like it is time to return home, to the normal routine, to [...]

So gather ’round math fans, preferably in a circle, as we celebrate a one-in-a-century day of Pi. We all know that March 14 (3/14) is Pi Day but this year we get something very special. Because it is 2015 we [...]

Last week while having breakfast and drinking my morning coffee my daughter looked up from her smart phone and said, “Oh no, Spock died.” I knew immediately what she meant. The actor, Leonard Nimoy, the man who portrayed Spock on [...]