Category: Uncategorized

  • The Excitable Electrons

    The Excitable Electrons

    I’ve talked about some of my college professors when I was attending, Huston-Tillotson College in the 1970s. It’s an HBCU in Austin, Texas. But I haven’t talked about my teachers elsewhere. That just occurred to me in the last few days. I had some exciting teachers at Iowa State University in Ames in the early…

  • How Cribbage Tournaments Deal with Slow Players

    How Cribbage Tournaments Deal with Slow Players

    Remember that cribbage game Sena and I filmed a while ago to show we could finish a cribbage game in 15 minutes if we really tried? Well, we just managed, although truth to tell, our games typically run 20 minutes or so. Well, today I looked at the American Cribbage Congress (ACC) monthly newsletter called…

  • Svengoolie Show Movie: “The War of the Worlds”

    Svengoolie Show Movie: “The War of the Worlds”

    We watched the 1953 movie “War of the Worlds” last night. I can vaguely remember seeing the remake starting Tom Cruise years ago. I ran across a free pdf of H.G. Wells novel “The War of the worlds, published in 1898 and quickly read it today for the first time. Apparently, it was a pretty…

  • Update to My 2019 Post “Black Psychiatrists in Iowa”

    Update to My 2019 Post “Black Psychiatrists in Iowa”

    Back in 2019, I wrote a post about black psychiatrists in Iowa. What got me interested in updating it is my having just finished reading Jonathan Eig’s biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: “King: A Life.” I have just started reading the other biography, “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr, Edited by Clayborne…

  • Comments on CDC ACIP Meeting Today

    Comments on CDC ACIP Meeting Today

    There are updates to the CDC ACIP meetings posted now. It looks like the anticipated votes on the MMRV and Hepatitis B vaccines are posted.

  • I Got a 28 Hand in Cribbage Today!

    I Got a 28 Hand in Cribbage Today!

    I got a 28 hand in Cribbage Pro scrimmage today against Brutal (the most difficult level). I also won the game. The odds of getting a 28 hand in cribbage is about 1 in 15,028. It’s the second highest hand score in cribbage. The highest score is a 29 hand and the odds of getting…

  • September Crayons

    September Crayons

    We saw a good deal more than monarch butterflies the other day. In fact, we both saw we could “see” a face in a big sunflower. I believe that could be called pareidolia. It’s the tendency to perceive meaningful images in the world that aren’t really there (like the Virgin Mary in a jelly donut).…

  • Don’t Sit for Too Long in the Catbird Seat!

    Don’t Sit for Too Long in the Catbird Seat!

    I was just wondering where the saying “you’re sitting in the catbird seat” came from. Some say it’s from how a catbird looks for food sitting on a high or secluded perch. It’s hard to tell exactly where the saying originated but many point to James Thurber’s short story “The Catbird Seat,” first published in…

  • “Trick or Treat” Dopey Archaeology!

    “Trick or Treat” Dopey Archaeology!

    Yesterday, in the “Writing is Dope” post, I said I didn’t remember what happened to an old Halloween story contest to which I submitted an entry (got honorable mention) in our hometown newspaper, the Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa. Sena took one look at that and declared we had a clipping of the story…

  • How to Support University of Iowa with the One Day for Iowa Fund Drive Today!

    How to Support University of Iowa with the One Day for Iowa Fund Drive Today!

    Okay, so here’s my pitch on how potential donors can support programs at The University of Iowa. Today the One Day for Iowa fund drive kicks off, and it ends at 11:59 PM today on March 26, 2025. I got a soft spot in my heart for The University of Iowa College of Medicine and…