Several of my friends have given names to their cars, and I know many other people who have bestowed appellations on their homes, their vacuum cleaners, their favorite trees, and their genitals. In Norse mythology, the god Thor affectionately called his magic golden hammer by the name Mjollnir. It so happens that this would be …
Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium. Chemist John Walker invented the match. Physicist Wilhelm Roentgen was the first person to find out about X-rays. What do these great minds have in common? They all refused to take out any patents in connection with their innovations, believing that they shouldn’t make any profit on something that …
A guy I met in a bar in New York’s Lower East Side discoursed at length on the psycho-spiritual meaning of *The Wizard of Oz.* “The Wicked Witch of the West was Dorothy’s greatest teacher,” he told me. “The witch’s animosity compelled her to learn new tricks, master her circumstances, and ultimately find her way …
German scientist Juergen Zulley specializes in research about the hours we spend unconscious lying in our beds every night. He has come to the conclusion that a lack of sleep can make you stupid, fat, and sick. It weakens your memory, decreases a hormone that helps control your cravings for food, and undermines the healthy …
Every person you know has a different idea about who you are, and none of those notions is exactly the same as the image you have of yourself. In other words, there are hundreds of unauthorized versions of you in addition to the one you believe in. Usually you don’t have much power to control …
In 1503, wealthy silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife Lisa. But when Leonardo finished the work, now known as the “Mona Lisa,” del Giocondo was so dissatisfied with it that he refused to pay for it. It seems he didn’t recognize its value. I offer …
Happy Holy Daze, Aquarius! I’ve been meditating on the perfect holiday gift for you. What symbolic item might inspire you to take maximum advantage of the cosmic currents in 2006? I’ve decided it would be a fortune cookie inside of which was an oracle based on an old Sufi saying: “I was a hidden treasure …
A friend gave me a live rosebush in a planter for my birthday last June. After a few weeks, its five red flowers withered and turned brown but didn’t fall off their stems. I left them there, perversely fascinated by the dead blooms that wouldn’t let go. Months later, in late November, five new flowers …
Writing in November’s *Esquire,* Chuck Klosterman described the National Football League as one of the most successful socialist institutions in the world. As evidence, he notes that rich teams in the biggest markets are required to share their revenue with poor teams in small markets. The league’s best franchise in recent years, the New England …
Did you know that the world has become dramatically more peaceful in the last 14 years? The 2005 Human Security Report documents how wars, coup d’états, and genocide have declined 40 percent since 1991. Weapons sales between countries have dropped 33 percent, and the number of refugees has diminished 45 percent. I hope this shocking …