November 2014
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So far my list includes taxi-driver, trapeze artist, surgeon, dog-groomer, monk, and hostage. Here's another. Last week I had a room on the twelfth floor of a new downtown Brooklyn hotel. From my window I could watch a new skyscraper being assembled. The basic I-beam members were in place and concrete floors and ceilings had been poured. But the structure lacked external…
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I am inordinately fond of mass extinctions. I find them consoling. The most recent mass extinction, the newly-famous Yucatan-comet-iridium K-T boundary event of 66 million years ago is one of my personal favorites. To recall: a comet six or seven miles in diameter, zooming along at 65,00 miles per hour and therefore generating a good bit of momentum, smacked into what…
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One day, back in the 50s, our neighborhood softball team was hosting a team from some exotic location, such as Bensonhurst, at the PS 217 schoolyard. I think I must have been playing either shortstop or second base, because I had an excellent view of the earthshaking event that I'm about to describe. It was…
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If you listen to the announcers of the NBA games, basketball players defy the laws and logic of physics. They "create space." One of the greatest space-creators was Shaquille O. Others merely imitate his technique. His most characteristic play was to drive his massive left shoulder into the chest of the defender, knocking him backwards a couple…
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I awoke this morning from a semi-nightmare all in a dither about Superman's x-ray vision. Inasmuch as the blue-haired one can see through dense objects (except, if I remember correctly, lead) then it follows as night the day that he cannot help seeing through his own eyelids. Superman must therefore suffer from what the sleep consultants call "poor sleep hygiene." Unable to keep the light…