My Hovercraft is Full of Eels

I’ve gotten into interesting discussions with friends who claim that I’m a barbarian for wanting to kill defenseless animals – often as they eat a hamburger. The disconnect between food and nature is strong in our society. Personally, I’ve only gone hunting once, and ate what I shot, and until today I’ve always believed that [...]

I had a problem with my online bank login tonight, so I called customer service at 10:15 pm on a Saturday night. They were there! And they answered! Ahhh, the pleasure of being in America. In just two days I go back to England, where, for example, if you want to buy something from a [...]

I generally think of myself as a lucky, lucky guy. So I can’t really complain when odd things befall me, but they do make me laugh, and they also make my friends say, “Tell me when you are flying out of London, so I can NOT book a flight then.”

Here’s a select personal history:

In 2005, [...]

I really don’t know what to make of this, but I’m glad it exists. People throw sticks into the water from the upstream side of the bridge, and cross the bridge to see the sticks come out the other side (just like Winnie the Pooh did). The World Championships is Sunday, in about 10 days [...]

In the spirit of adventure, I responded to a forwarded email from a friend – their colleague was offering a free photo-shoot consisting of black and white headshots (and nothing more, I know what all my male friends are thinking).

I went, lights were setup, photos were taken, and until today that was all [...]

I’m always been appreciative of forgiving friends, and I feel this isn’t by coincidence, given my personality. So it was a great relief when Jeff was so gracious after I tried to kill his four-year old daughter, Siena.

It wasn’t purposeful – I was at their house eating a chocolate cookie when Siena walked by and [...]

I was invited to a brilliant and inventive party by a friend of mine, and what made it so great, beyond the great company and vast quantities of smoked ham and soft cheeses I ate, was the gingerbread man competition. We had different shapes, different colored icing, and little sugary decorations – our only constraint [...]

London’s TimeOut magazine suggested, and I obeyed, a free tour of the Victorian Nunhead cemetery.

Lots of headstones and monuments burried under vines and overgrowth, with a crypt full of disintegrating coffins. Very cool.

Looking around for a gym, I ended up joining a Bikram Yoga studio. I figured this was just one more variation of yoga, and had no idea what I was getting myself in for. The studio was 105 Fahrenheit, and humid.

After the shock of the first session, I went back, enjoying each class more than [...]

On day four of my German class, the teacher asked us our professions, and one student replied a chef.

If you are learning English, chef is pretty easy, like most nouns. Plurals and definite/indefinite articles follow basic rules. That’s it. Just like German . . . almost.

The German word for chef is der Koch. Simple, right? [...]