The Last Story each week tends to be what I call a “feelgood” type to leave readers on an up note after sometimes fairly heavy stories.
Away From Work
Pitching Star Trek
Or, Something from My Past Most Don’t Know About.
Find the Problem, Implement the Solution
“I’m So Tired!” — Lily Von Shtupp (Blazing Saddles, 1974)
“‘Exhaustion’ has been a recurring theme lately. It’s mostly due to a serious but correctable medical condition.” —Me in last week’s newsletters.
Let me explain.
The Pillars of Creation
…and my idea for an art piece to celebrate it.
The Hubble Space Telescope took the first photo of the “Pillars of Creation” (a section of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation about 7,000 light-years away from Earth) in 1995.
Dick Pincsak Has Guts
by Randy Cassingham
Winter 1985
“I wondered: is this what it’s really like to be an unwanted minority in American society? It’s powerful, and that’s why it had such an impact on my life.”
The Best Thing All Week
This isn’t a story about me, but rather something awesome that I witnessed while working at a big fire on Saturday. It was an interaction that made my night, even my week, but first I have to set the scene, and allow for a side trip to tell you the Moose Story at the end. You’ll see why it relates….
You Won’t Believe Your Eyes
Or maybe the second word in the title should be “Shouldn’t”!
Fore! … Oops.
I could relate to Alexander’s story this week about the family who sued a country club about all the golf balls hitting their house. First, the story:
The Best of April Fools:
Earlier Generations Did It Better
A lot of sites and publications will be running crazy stories as true to try to trick you today. Not me.
My Dad’s Landlady
Those who know me may see the seeds of some of my own background in this….
Robertson Davies: My Favorite Author
Years Ago My Super Cool Aunt visited an old friend in Denver. I was still living in Boulder at the time, so I went down to take the ladies to lunch. Lottie really wanted to go to the Tattered Cover bookstore — one of the big, independent stores that has a huge variety of books. She wanted something to read on her travels.
Language Arts
This is an absolutely true story: I was in the class.
090: Rescuing Uncommon Sense
In This Episode: A story in This is True struck me as an astonishing example of Uncommon Sense, so I thought I’d tell you about it to see some really out-of-the-box thinking, and provide some practical advice that could save your life. Here’s a hint: no one thinks they’re going to get lost and need rescue. Yet there are tens of thousands of rescues every year in the U.S. alone. What will increase your odds of being safe? Uncommon Sense.
The Usual Culprit
Monday was just the beginning of a crazy week (see the previous entry, Come to Me, for that story). Things went decidedly downhill Wednesday, when I was called out before dawn to a wildfire.
031: Boosting Creativity the Easy Way
In This Episode: There’s a proven way to boost your creativity, open-mindedness, thoughtfulness, and more. The best part: it’s also fun, interesting, and can even be done while working, or on vacation.
Preparing for a Mass Shooting: Behind the Scenes
Five Years Ago Now (yikes!), I wrote in this blog about a serious “multi-casualty incident” (or MCI) in my county. That happened on a Sunday — coincidentally the day after we finished a two-day MCI training.
The Cherry Rumtini
A local ice cream parlor puts cherries on its sundaes. But not some crappy maraschino cherry *. They have their cherries flown in from Italy, and they’re so fantastic I bought some, and had to find other uses for them so I don’t have to eat so much ice cream! What I came up with a buddy says I should call “The Amazing Martini”! The recipe is below.
Kit on the Camino
I’ve mentioned here and there that my wife, Kit, is walking the Camino de Santiago — the “French Way,” starting in Saint Jean De Pied De Port, France, over the French Pyrenees to Pamplona, Spain, and then west to Santiago. The trek is about 800km, or around 500 miles. Plus any walking around to get dinner or … Continue Reading
The Race to Pluto: Chasing New Horizons
Chasing New Horizons:
Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
by Alan Stern & David Grinspoon
I’ve been waiting for this one! After pre-ordering months ago, this book arrived on its publication date: May 1 — and it’s spectacular.
Behind the Scenes at JPL
Long-time readers know that This is True was created while I still had a Day Job. It was a very cool job: I was on the engineering staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1986-1996 — True was started in 1994, so there was a two-year overlap).