Halfway There

What were you thinking? The best student in my elementary algebra class looked up from the last page of the exam and tried to kill me with h...

A look backward I broke a link the other day. I hadn't meant to break it. More likely, it was already broken and I finally realized it. ...

Brit has been there before Reversion to the mean is a phenomenon unhappily familiar to a host of people whose names bear the appendage “Jr.”...

Nothing up my sleeve Oh, yeah, this is me, all right. The hands tell a story. If you turn off the sound, my lectures would be pantomime the...

Inmates and asylums It's a very ancient saying, But a true and honest thought, That if you become a teacher, By your pupils you'll b...

Persistence & patience “Zeno” has been my on-line handle for several years, dating back to the era when electronic bulletin board system...

God is kitsch The California high school exit exam has started to exact its toll on students who now face the possibility of ending their se...

What goes around Look at the moon. I mean really look at the moon. Crane your neck and regard the earth's traveling companion. Try it. ...

Commander Cuckoo-Bananas Iraq is not Vietnam. It is worse. When North Vietnamese forces marched into Saigon in 1975 and renamed it Ho Chi Mi...

Empty-headed & empty-handed The student came up at the end of class to ask me a question. He looked vaguely familiar, which is quite unu...

It's not what you think The anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision always occasions a lot of excitement and politi...

She sang, but the opera ain't over The people who study these things tell us that opera is an Italian art form. That seems likely enou...

More of that true believer stuff I probably should stop watching John Hagee during breakfast on Sundays. It's bad for the digestion. Ha...

Identities confused & abused Someone borrowed my niece's identity last year. "Becky" gave up her mail box at the local pos...

The elasticity of work Every so often, some brilliant legislator introduces a bill to limit the number of bills he can introduce. Such measu...

Lame arguments II San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll has his own approach to holiday charity. He eliminates the middle man. Rath...

A rant about certainty We naturally tentative people are at a disadvantage. Instead of embracing absolute truths, we prefer provisional prop...