My opening question was inspired by a well-intentioned idea on the part of the committee that organized my 50th high school reunion this...

Age is the money shot in an obit. Followed by cause of death as a close second. My father, Carl G. Hempel, was a professor of...

April 25, 2009 · I received a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant a little while ago which read: "Fear is the darkroom where...

June 9, 2009 · Rest in peace, Grasshopper “We have all been in rooms/We cannot die in” “Adultery,” James Dickey In Tarantino’s Kill Bill 2 , David Carradine (Bill) [also called “Grasshopper” by his master in the TV series “Kung Fu”]meets his end at the hands of Uma Thurman (Beatrix Kiddo), whom Bill had tried to kill for leaving him. Beatrix has learned the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique from the master Bill sent her to for her apprenticeship; when she strikes his

June 25, 2009 · So apparently philosophy is not dead. In a bid to enrich the passenger experience on the London tube, they have decided to add philosophy to the mix of station announcements and safety messages. Cezanne's, "we live in a rainbow of chaos" and Jean-Paul Satre's, "hell is other people" are among the philosophical ideas to be recited by Tube drivers. (The latter being a somewhat odd reminder on an over-crowded rush-hour subway car.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ent

July 17, 2009 · Subsidize Viagra to ensure quality of life: Swedish court Published: 10 Jul 09 18:40 CET Arguing that having sex is...