My blog has migrated to a new host and is being painstakingly reconstructed here. Please bear with me as I iron out wrinkles, hammer out the dents, and apply enough spit and duct tape to hold it all together.— Karen
Is it me, or has modern life become eerily similar to an Addams Family episode? Our days are a dizzying mix of horror (“AI Goes Rogue!”), slapstick comedy (“Raccoon Rescued from Mayonnaise Jar”), and mystery (“Where did I park my car?”). As for the Addamses themselves, they were always good company. “Bizarre as we appeared…
Congratulations! Simply by reading this, you are already pre-celebrating tomorrow’s often-overlooked but super-significant national holiday. Yes, August 5 is Blogger Day in America, and I, for one, am proud to be part of it. August 5 is also national Underwear Day. Coincidence? Or deliberate timing? Many bloggers brag about enjoying a profession (one of all…
The new Curiosity Center at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where Rich and I visted old friends including Happy, the 70-foot Haplocanthosaurus delfsi dinosaur, and Balto, once America‘s most famous dog. “Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “What’s happened to Balto?” I was staring, slackjawed, at the sled dog that had earned worldwide acclaim in…
Of all the headlines that nearly made me spit out my morning coffee — and I think you’ll agree there have been plenty lately — the biggest jolt this week was learning that pigeons are being used to help train artificial intelligence. No, the birds are not helping us create homing robots (which would be…
I like to think of this blog as the place I get to mix entertaining stories with a dash of travel advice, a few uplifting quotes, and a sprinkling of ideas about navigating these challenging times with grace and humor. But ever since I got back to California, I find myself wallowing in harrowing disaster…
This week, shocking animal shenanigans left barnyard creatures reeling and caused humans to question their eyesight … and their sanity. “I thought I was crazy,” said farmer Joe Johnson. Kindhearted Joe and his wife, Bridget, live on a small Ohio farm and take in strays: aging livestock, abandoned horses, homeless dogs, feral cats, random chickens.…
OK, this is it. I am pulling out all the stops. My latest household catastrophe — details on that in a moment — has forced me to invoke St. Romedio of Hohenwart, the patron saint of reversing bad luck. A thousand years ago, he was on his way to visit a friend when a bear…
“I don’t like to doze by the fire,” says Jo Marsh in Lousia May Alcott’s Little Women. “I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.” I was ten when I read those words, and I’ve been doing my best to live up to Jo’s philosophy ever since. Mostly, it’s been grand. However, as you’ve…
My mom raised so many kids (6) that she got it fixed in her head a normal evening meal was, for instance, a single lamb chop, a spoonful of mashed potatoes, and a few broccoli flowerettes. More than one relative has told me, “We always used to leave dinners at your mom’s house saying, ‘Well,…
When I first heard a humanoid AI robot had become a monk in a Buddhist monastery, I was aghast. If AI was taking over the work of spiritual heavyweights who had devoted their lives to advancing the human race toward enlightenment, how can the rest of us hope to hold on to our paltry jobs? “At…
CELEBRATING GOOD NEIGHBORS These days I’m writing about Good Neighbors, exploring how the people around me are working to help each other get through these challenging times. My weekly posts appear on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on my travel and research schedule.
THIS BLOG IS A PROMOTION-FREE ZONE. As my regular readers know, I never get free or discounted goods or services for mentioning anything on this blog (or anywhere else). I only write about things I find interesting and/or useful.
