Last week, I passed through Phoenix, Arizona for a work gig and got the chance to hang with my niece, Madison, and her mom, Priscilla. Passing along more of our family’s punning heritage, I introduced Madison to the Tom Swifty form, a pun-derful method of livening up quotations by linking the speaker’s content with the [more…]
100 Funny Names: A Shabbat Brainstorm
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of celebrating Shabbat dinner with my dear friends, Michael and Julie Saxe-Taller, their son Sam, and a host of other delightful people. After lighting candles and enjoying our dinner, we spent much of the evening playing improv games: word-at-a-time interviews, 1-2-3 timing challenges, and the like. Throughout the [more…]
Pathos Behind the Pounce
Aggressive salesmen can sully the best of romantic, city-wandering moods. But compassion can overcome that obnoxiousnessness.
Smaller Than A Baguette Box
We are creatures of comfort and of habit. Sometimes it takes stepping out of the box–or into a smaller one–to realize the limitations of our entrenched patterns.
You Had Me at “ævinlega sæl og blessud” (or Why I Now Love IcelandAir)
You’ve gotta love Iceland Air for their ingenious welcome strategy. Offer reduced prices for travel to Europe, allow for no-fee layovers in the capital city of Reykjavík to break up the jet lag of a long journey, and make it easy to enjoy the natural and cultural wonders of the place. A stop at the [more…]
The OmPhone: Technology of Meditation
I tend to resist the siren’s call of technology. Or at least I do my best to. Influenced by the writings of Neil Postman and Jerry Mander, I now see how we trumpet and embrace the benefits of new technologies without ever really taking into consideration the possible—and often certain—destructive consequences they radiate around them. [more…]
