A story in today's Wall Street Journal by Alastair Gale and Takashi Mochizuki tells of Japan’s Henn na, or “Strange,” Hotel, which opened to great fanfare in 2015, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s first robot hotel. A little over three years later, the hotel is "laying off" its lowest-performing droids. Here are some of the problems guests … Continue reading Robots Were So Much Better 50 Years Ago
My wife and I finally got around to watching Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show that was released on Netflix on December 18. We would have loved to have seen it live, but the price and logistics made it difficult. From first line to last bow, the film includes the full length of Springsteen’s theatrical creation. Watching … Continue reading Music Monday: Springsteen on Broadway, via Netflix
As I was cutting up our weekly purchase of a dozen bagels so that we could freeze them, I realized how much I loved having a bagel slicer (or as Amazon calls it, a bagel guillotine). We've only had it for about a year, but now I can't remember how we were able to live without … Continue reading Things That Make Life Worth Living
Every year since 2004, Oxford Dictionary has announced its choice for Word of the Year. According to Wikipedia, the Word of the Year need not have been coined within the past twelve months but it does need to have become prominent or notable during that time. There is no guarantee that the Word of the … Continue reading All These Cool Finalists – and They Pick This as the Word of the Year?
If you're like me, the first thing you would have done when you read the title of this post is go to Google and type, "what happened 413 days ago". And you would have found out that 413 days ago was Friday, November 24, 2017 - Black Friday. And 773 days ago (November 29, 2016) I ended one … Continue reading This Post Is 413 Days Late
The Wall Street Journal had a story today about the intensifying conflict over college debt among American families. Reporters Erica Snow and Douglas Belkin note that tuition increases have outpaced household incomes just as parents are facing multiple financial responsibilities, including supporting their own parents, saving for retirement, health-care costs, and sometimes their adult children’s living … Continue reading Thanks, Mom and Dad
For the past several years, Mark Zuckerberg has set a personal challenge for himself. He just announced his challenge for 2019 on Facebook (of course) - host a series of discussions on the future of technology "My challenge for 2019 is to host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society -- … Continue reading Mark Zuckerberg’s Personal Challenge for 2019, and a Look Back at His Previous Ones
I had seen the commercial a couple of times, but I hadn't really paid too much attention to it. Then I read Harlan Coben's tweet about it: Is it weird that Chevy’s adverising campaign relies on the fact that no one believes Chevy is reliable? — Harlan Coben (@HarlanCoben) January 7, 2019 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js So I … Continue reading Sorry, Chevrolet, It Looks Like Two Thumbs Down for Your Latest Commercial
Sometimes I can't remember the name of people I met five minutes ago, but somehow I can sing all the lyrics to both the opening and closing theme songs from the Beverly Hillbillies, from 50 years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvE9zJgm8OY And when I watched this video until the end, the memories came rushing back as I heard Daisy May … Continue reading Music Monday: Classic TV Theme Songs
That's one of the memorable lines from the book, Educated, which I just finished reading. Here's a brief summary of the book from the author's (Tara Westover) website: Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of … Continue reading “I teach them not to piss on their hands.”
Borden's Blather 