BE CAREFUL PLAYING WITH THE shiny new toy — the shiny new toy may decide to play with you.
Tag: moments
All that we ever really have.
Clearly the best time to be alive is when you start out wondering and end up knowing. There is only one generation in the whole history of mankind in that position. Us.”
— Carl Sagan, June 1974
ENJOY YOUR TIME.”
— Preferred parting sentiment of a well-known Sonoma shopkeeper
Sacred Comedy
LAST WEEK AT THE GROCER’S, the guy ahead of me in line is good-naturedly chatting up the sales clerk when he catches sight of my yarmulke. “What happened to the rest of your hat?” he asks. Without missing a beat,…
Private Fame
TO AN AMATEUR SKYWATCHER (in the original sense of that first word), the beginning of the month is quite special; it’s when the new issue of Astronomy arrives. Among that magazine’s many excellent features and fixtures is “Ask Astro,” where…
Prophylaxis
THE MISSIONARY AT THE DOOR was polite but insistent as she tried to hand me a tract. I bowed my head and pointed to my yarmulke. “No thank you,” I said. Her eyes widened and her mouth made a little…
Birds of a Feather
THE SMALL BOY AT SONOMA Plaza came running up to the ducks. Great, I snarled to myself. Just what we need — another damn kid chasing the local waterfowl. Why can’t they leave the birds in peace? As I considered…
Teachable Moment
WHILE HITCHHIKING BETWEEN PLACERVILLE AND South Lake Tahoe in 1985, my ride — who had just unsuccessfully offered a friendly beer — taught me a valuable lesson on which I still reflect constantly: “When you’re on the road, and someone…
Pithyism #1234
EVERYTHING — EVERYTHING OF ANY VALUE, anyway — is always “worth a shot.”
Pithyism #666 (Three Little Words You May [or May Not] Want to Hear)
“HERE THEY COME.”
THE AX EXISTED FOR 1.4 million years before anyone thought to put a handle on it.”
— James Williams
It used to freak me out that I’d never see the back of my own head. Now that I’ve accepted it, I can move on to the house of mirrors.”
— Barbatus the Elder