I had never heard of the phrase "lawnmower beer" until I came across it in a story I was reading online a couple of weeks ago. I could kind of guess what the phrase was referring to, but I decided to look it up anyway. Here's what I found at Urban Dictionary: Any beer low … Continue reading The Refreshing Taste and Sweet Memories of Lawnmower Beer
Spelling bees bring back good memories for me, and I've written about my experiences before. I remember spending the summers after sixth and seventh grade going to our school's convent and sitting on the porch with retired Sister Miriam and practicing my spelling for an hour a day. I'm sure that's nothing compared to what … Continue reading To Bee or Not To Bee
This post comes courtesy of Dan Pink and another one of his Pinkcasts. This week, Dan talks with Austin Kleon, author of the classic book, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative and his newest book, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad. One of … Continue reading Build Your Own Bliss Station
Villanova University was blessed to have Bert Jacobs, co-founder of the Life is Good brand, as its commencement speaker this past weekend. Bert started selling t-shirts with his brother John out of a van back in 1989. But as their web site points out, it was not very prosperous. They lived on peanut butter and jelly, … Continue reading “Life Is Good” Co-Founder Delivers Inspirational Commencement Speech and a Few Well-Thrown Frisbees
I've always said that I want to live to be at least 100. There's no particular reason why, it just seems like a nice round number and perhaps confirmation of healthy living. I've always viewed running out of money as my biggest worry if I were to live to 100, but after reading an article … Continue reading Is It Worth Living to 100?
The Who recently appeared on the Tonight Show and played their classic hit, "Won't Get Fooled Again". What made it extra special was that they were accompanied by The Roots, and everyone used children's musical instruments to set the tone. Fallon has been doing this a for a while, but this was the first time … Continue reading Music Monday: Jimmy Fallon and the Complete Classroom Instrument Sessions
I'm currently reading Bad Blood, the fascinating, yet depressing, inside look at the story of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. While I plan to offer a more in-depth review of the book when I finish it, I found one question posed in the book to be intriguing. A group of Theranos employees was having lunch, and … Continue reading Would You Rather Be…?
It was graduation weekend at Villanova, which meant there was a good chance one of the speakers was going to quote St. Augustine. A couple of the people did mention my favorite quote attributed to Augustine (at separate commencement events, fortunately). Here is the quote (at least one translation of it): Always be dissatisfied with … Continue reading Wisdom from 400 A.D. (in less than 400 words)
A few weeks ago I signed up for my first Coursera course - Introduction to Probability and Data, and today I was informed that I had successfully passed the course. The course is part of a five-course Certificate, Statistics with R Specialization (R is a computer language focused on statistical analysis); The other four courses … Continue reading I Just Completed My First Coursera Course, and All I Can Say Is Wow
I mentioned the Greater Good web site in one of my previous posts, noting that it was my favorite new web site. Here's a little bit about Greater Good, from its web site: Through articles, videos, quizzes, and podcasts, we bridge the gap between scientific journals and people’s daily lives, particularly for parents, educators, business … Continue reading The Gratitude Quiz
Borden's Blather 