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…

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