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Antivisible Man |
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People we really don't want to see are more than merely invisible; they occupy a strange kind of "negative space". |
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Civilization Follows the Vine |
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The Romans believed that planting a vineyard was the first of many stages to civilizing a new frontier of their world. Here's a rendition of those stages, nine in all. |
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Climbing Beacon Hill |
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Renovation recapitulates rising: when you renovate a house, you symbolically reexperience your own upward social mobility. |
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Country Pleasures |
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Here are all the ways two very different sorts of people— "Country Music" fold and "Whole Foods" aficionados— share a love of rural aAmerica. |
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A Defense of the English System |
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My defense of a sensible system, with measures of length and volume geared to a human scale. |
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Elements at the University |
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No fewer than 19 atomic elements have their departmental "champions" at the university. |
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Evaporation |
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On the quiet disappearance of burglars, junkies, and speedfreaks from America's rich cities. |
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Five-Handed Bridge |
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Rules to enable five to play America's favorite four-handed game. |
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Grace |
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My personal definition for this exquisite phenomenon. |
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How To Tell if You're “Old Money” |
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This essay will help you to know if your vintage has reached maturity- or if sufficient time has passed for the fundamental crime to be forgotten. |
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How to Tell Whether You Are In San Diego or In Cape Town |
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A mocking of the genteel apartheid of the U.S.A. |
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The Hungarian's Revolving Door |
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"A Hungarian is a man who can enter a revolving door after you, but emerge before you." Here's a design for such a door. |
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Ideal Casino |
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Casinos are just too tawdry these days. Here's a description of an elegant alternative. |
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The Innocent Pleasures of Adulthood |
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In which the notion of a "simple, innocent childhood" is refuted. |
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The Institute for Policy Negation |
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Well-intentioned people want to reform the world through innovative social policies, which often make things worse. Perhaps it's time for a Counter-Reformation. |
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Junkie's Rental Rights |
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Junkies sometimes (o horrors!) use pay toilets to shoot up. Maybe they have a right to do so... |
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Let's Start Later |
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Three good reasons to start (and end) the school day two hours later. |
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Living Wakes |
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A Living Will enables a person to choose the timing of his dying. Perhaps, then, his wake could be scheduled before rather than after his death... |
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A New Coinage System |
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My expression of love for a golden past, when coins felt worthy and real in the hand. |
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Poor Day, Rich Life |
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The richer you are, the longer the perspective you take on life. "Poor Day, Rich Life" examines this phenomenon in household shopping, substance use, and HIV treatment. |
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Public and Private Theft |
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Or, why Communism failed: an argument that it's far, far easier to "steal" from the faceless public than from a private individual... and stealing takes many forms. |
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Rules for Six-Handed Contract Bridge |
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A variant of my favorite game, with 78-card decks, blue suits, and occasional betrayal of partners. |
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Ruling Class |
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Advice from Cato the Cynic to a ruling class that desires to stay on top. |
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Seven - Handed Bridge |
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How seven people can play America's favorite four-handed game. |
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Skiing at the Edge |
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New names for |
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Squire Newmeyer's Principles for 21st Century Country House Weekends |
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How to be a gracious host when you've got guests for a country weekend. |
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A Stepwise Nomenclature of Aging in America |
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Proposes precise usage for synonyms of "old", to demarcate that vast timescape between 55 and 105. |
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Temporal Theology |
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A recommendation that people in Mediterranean climates practice two faiths, one for the dry season and one for the wet season... |
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Ten Commandments for a Ruling Class Which Desires to Endure |
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Advice from Cato the Cynic to a ruling class that wants to stay on top. |
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Tent People and Blanket People |
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By the Opera House, the very rich and the very poor set out their criteria for a successful evening, in very different and very similar manners. |
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Thirteen-Ball Pool |
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A proposal of a three-way version of "eight-ball pool", as a metaphor for three-way conflict. |
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Toward a Non-Sexist Language |
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Our alphabet once had a 27th letter; this essay tells how we can get it back, and get some gender-neutral pronouns along the way. |
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Toward an Hereditary Upper Class |
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What things are needed if America is to have a genuine aristocracy? Can such a thing endure? |
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Turtles All the Way Down |
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A cosmic joke in defense of infinite time. |
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Twelve Ways to Distinguish an Australian from a New Zealander |
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My attempt to teach North Americans the difference between Australians and New Zealanders. It might have been simpler just to say, "think of Texas and Vermont"... |
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What We Have Gained |
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A look at some potential upsides of the September 11th catastrophe. |
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What We Have Lost |
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A systematic and skeptical survey of nostalgia. |
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