The idea of “unknown unknowns” was popularized by Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense prior to the Iraq War, talking about the potential that Iraq was supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. It was suspected, but no one knew for certain. The idea percolated through culture, that …
Op-Ed/Letters
December, 2024
October, 2024
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21 October
Getting it done
We’ve all experienced someone telling us we ought to do something we’re already in the middle of doing, or that we ought to do it a certain way when we already know perfectly well how to get it done. Might be the new person at work who already knows everything, …
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11 October
Reader and long-time cat advocate and rescuer takes issue with HDHS handling of Cat House
The 9-22-24 High Desert Humane Society raid on the Cat Rescue building was unwarranted and needlessly aggressive. Regardless of any financial constraints or reasons known only to HDHS, the transfer of cats to the new location was conducted with calculated cruelty, divesting Director Sylvia Smith of her job, banishing her …
September, 2024
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27 September
The Parable of the Tomato Patch
I’m growing a vegetable garden again this year, but it’s not going well. I have eleven tomato plants, three zucchinis, and eight chile peppers, and they look great. I should be swimming in vegetables by now. But there’s hardly anything on them. Last year, the tomatoes suffered because a tropical …
August, 2024
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20 August
What have the Romans ever done for us?
One of Monty Python’s greatest scenes features a meeting in Roman Jerusalem. John Cleese introduces the motion, “What have the Romans ever done for us?” It all starts to go downhill when someone says, “Well, there’s the aqueduct.” A couple years into my time as principal at Miami High School, …
July, 2024
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20 July
You Deserve to Flourish
Sometimes, life doesn’t feel very lively. In 2022 and 2023, I spent an unusual amount of time watching Vera – the British crime show featuring a brilliant but grumpy female investigator. At the time, I was spending a lot of time working in the yard, putting in a vegetable garden, …
May, 2024
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27 May
Life Without Likes
In 2015, Isa (pronounced EYE-sa) Watson was in her 30s, and was leading what appeared to be an almost perfect life. She had three college degrees under her belt and an impressive background as a research scientist – she’d been the youngest chemist ever to publish a paper. Isa was …
April, 2024
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20 April
Learning the Two-Step
The summer of 2018, I visited Austin, Texas, intending to learn to dance the Texas two-step. I stayed for a week in a little Airbnb a half mile from the legendary Broken Spoke – the honky tonk bar and dance hall that since 1964 has become a landmark of country …
March, 2024
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24 March
A Real Housekeeper
Last summer I gave away my corkscrew. I enjoy wine, but my enthusiasm for imbibing the fermented grape waxes and wanes, and that summer the corkscrew was gathering dust. So when my neighbor Stefan appeared on my doorstep begging to borrow it, I told him to take it and keep …
February, 2024
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25 February
Two Wheels or a Mule Named Buford
There once was a lady by the name of Anne Mustoe, who lived in Southwold, a small town on the coast of England—also the home of the crime writer P.D. James, and you might know it as the location of the British drama Upstairs, Downstairs. Miss Mustoe was born in …