I was skeptical when major league baseball announced its plan to play a sixty game "regular" season and then the "Fall Frenzy" playoff format. Really, I thought. What with all the craziness of 2020 - Who cares?. The season began July 23rd, with the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers being featured on ESPN. Because … Continue reading Baseball 2020: Fall Frenzy
Tag: happiness
PROZAC diary
Lauren Slater has been on Prozac since it burst on the scene in 1988. PROZAC diary (1998) is her book recounting the first ten years of the drug and how it affected and saved her life. That's not an exaggeration. She was twenty-five and suffering debilitating OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). Slater had been hospitalized five times beginning … Continue reading PROZAC diary
Lying
Lying is a thing people do. It has been a subject and action, central to my understanding of communication, between and within persons nearly all my life. Because of reasons not pertinent to this review. Lying (2000) is a memoir by Lauren Slater published twenty years ago, when she was 37. It's a beautiful, fascinating story. … Continue reading Lying
The Territorial Imperative
The Territorial Imperative was a book I read back in the late 60's, as a freshman at Colorado State University. It has informed and influenced me ever since. Its "big ideas" predated Evolutionary Psychology, by some ten/twenty years. Sociobiology was a word coined by The Naturalist, E.O. Wilson, around 1975. Sociobiology, as defined by Wilson … Continue reading The Territorial Imperative
The Pursuit Of Happiness
At a recent session with my psych-girl, she closed with three "suggestions": Lower your expectations Reduce your drinking Censor yourself Is there a better prescription for unhappiness? Or is it one for happiness? Christopher Hitchens once said: It's not true that you shouldn't drink alone; these can be the happiest glasses you ever drain. I … Continue reading The Pursuit Of Happiness
Health & Well-Being Inventory
The Health & Well-Being Inventory is an assessment tool to quantify the health and well-being of an individual in comparison to their nation. I break down "health" into six categories: physical, mental, psychological, emotional, social, and economic. An individual, or nation, is scored using a typical five-letter grading system - A to F. An A … Continue reading Health & Well-Being Inventory
Krystal Ball is wrong
Krystal Ball is wrong and Donald Trump is right. Stay with me, I'll make this brief. I watch Krystal daily. For three reasons: She and I share a birthday, and thus some general personality traits. Krystal is an attractive, young, expressive, and smart woman. Ball is fun and entertaining (because she is naive?) Ms Ball … Continue reading Krystal Ball is wrong
Gone but not forgotten
Gone but not forgotten is singer songwriter John Prine. He died Tuesday of the virus. He was seventy-three and in poor health. I was introduced to John Prine's music in the early 70's by my neighbor, friend, and drinking buddy, Mike. Mike was a Vietnam vet and a postal worker - as was Prine, a … Continue reading Gone but not forgotten
Relief day
Relief day, Wednesday 25 March, 2020. Even the Magpies know it! It's been exactly two weeks (Wednesday, 11 March, 2020) since doomsday. That was the day "When The World Stops", according to Time magazine's "Special Report: COVID-19" (vol.195.no 11.2020). Errg. My mood has never been this high (8.5 on my mood scale), since I can't remember … Continue reading Relief day
The Magpie Cafe
The Magpie Cafe is a dream. Ever since I began working in the restaurant industry some fifty years ago - I've imagined having a cafe that integrated where I lived with that which I love. Mostly, of all things - I love people and conversation, good food and spirits, music, wood and wild country. So … Continue reading The Magpie Cafe