I Don't Know Much

My first teaching job was at a chiropractic college in Georgia. I began hearing about chiropractic as soon as I moved there, and I immediately began complaining about using an adjective as a noun, but no one listened. Chiropractic had been around for a hundred years, and I was just a displaced... Sign in to see full entry.

I try to be a calming influence, a kind of laid-back character who offers words of wisdom or support to the people around me. I answer slowly when called on, trying to think about what was asked and how I should answer. I delay so long in some situations that my wife has taken to ordering for me in... Sign in to see full entry.

My first job after a period of inactivity was as a gallery guard at an art museum. The people there are friendly and supportive, the job was not demanding, and the pay was lousy, so it was all good. I really like most of the other guards and the rest of the museum staff, and they always greet me... Sign in to see full entry.

Kathleen Parker says that we should all recognize the point at which life begins. Barrack Obama famously said such questions were above his pay scale. Now, I don't know about Ms. Parker's income, but Obama certainly makes more than I do. But I'll take a shot at the question anyway. I have this nasty... Sign in to see full entry.

I grew up in the Nevada desert, just a few miles from the main gate of the Nevada Test Site. I worked out there summers after high school. As a child, I could feel the Earth shake from the underground weapons tests, and I got a kind of thrill from the power that demonstrated. I've never been afraid... Sign in to see full entry.

Back in 1996, there was a book published to much fanfare that claimed to disprove Darwin's theory of evolution. It was called, "Darwin's Black Box". The thesis was that Darwin didn't know much about what went on in cells, and the complexity later found in cells made Darwinian evolution impossible. I... Sign in to see full entry.

All good young men in the Mormon church serve a mission. They leave at the age of 19, and spend two years preaching the gospel. You may heave seen them. They travel in pairs, wear white shirts and ties with black name tags, and have short, well-groomed hair and no mustache or beard. I was one of... Sign in to see full entry.

I was a sort of jock in high school, running cross-country and track, and in between, wrestling. I liked wrestling because of the weight class thing. I wrestled 98 pounds until my senior year, when I moved up to 106. Just so we're clear, I was not a 98-pound weakling. I was a 98-pound strongling,... Sign in to see full entry.

I heard on NPR as I was driving somewhere (you'd think at current prices, I'd remember every mile.) Robert Reich advocating Affirmative Action based on socioeconomic status, as an alternative to race-based programs. It might help. It would still offer assistance to low income minorities, but would... Sign in to see full entry.

I am not an art historian, but I like art, and I've learned a bit about it, because for a couple of years, my only employment was as a part time gallery guard in an art museum. (Also, my wife has a MA in art history, and is the registrar of the permanent collection of that museum.) As a guard, I... Sign in to see full entry.