The Nature of Things

Feeling particularly sluggish and drowsy today? It's a common phenomenon the day after we have to "spring forward" an hour for Daylight Saving Time. It takes some people several days to adjust their internal clocks to the new reality and, during that time, their attention and cognitive reflexes can suffer. Really, though, at any time of the year, in our fast-paced, ever-changing, ever-challenging world, it's not uncommon to suffer from sleep deprivation. I have first-hand knowledge of that. One way to deal with the problem is daytime naps. In 1999, a Boston University professor, William Anthony, Ph.D., and his wife, Camille Anthony, presidents of something called The Napping Company, began an annual observance of "National Napping Day" to showcase the many healthy benefits of napping. It may sound frivolous. Many things which make eminently good sense often do. But, indeed, many studies over the years have shown the benefits of napping. Researchers have des...

The Great Blue Heron BY  CAROLYN KIZER M.A.K. September, 1880-September, 1955 As I wandered on the beach I saw the heron standing    Sunk in the tattered wings He wore as a hunchback’s coat.    Shadow without a shadow,    Hung on invisible wires    From the top of a canvas day,    What scissors cut him out?    Superimposed on a poster    Of summer by the strand    Of a long-decayed resort,    Poised in the dusty light    Some fifteen summers ago;    I wondered, an empty child,    “Heron, whose ghost are you?” I stood on the beach alone, In the sudden chill of the burned. My thought raced up the path.    Pursuing it, I ran To my mother in the house And led her to the scene. The spectral bird was gone. But her quick eye saw him drifting    Over the highest pines On vast, unmovi...

Tomorrow night will be the first Sunday night in several weeks when we won't be able to sit down in front of our televisions and be "Enlightened." Even more sadly, we face the prospect that we may never again be able to get our Sunday "Enlightened" fix. The withdrawal pains will be intense. The HBO series, created by and starring Laura Dern and Mike White, ended its second season last Sunday. Its continuing survival in the cutthroat world of television, where ratings are everything, is not at all ensured. The series never earned the ratings that it would have in a just world, but I've written here before that I thought it was the best thing on TV - even though I admitted that I haven't seen everything that's on TV. It was not a series that was easy to categorize. It was sometimes a drama and sometimes a comedy. It was a dramedy, but that just confused some viewers who didn't want the challenge of having to figure that out every week. Also, it ...

Saluting the contributions of women everywhere. This is your day. (Of course, every day is, really.) Happy International Women's Day!

Forget all those cute and adorable videos of pwecious widdle kitties. The truth is cats can sometimes be jerks. Her's the video to prove it. Of course, even when they are jerks, they are still adorable! Happy weekend and happy International Women's Day. Please support equality for women everywhere.

I have admired and enjoyed the writing in two earlier books by Michael Chabon that I have read -  The Yiddish Policemen's Union  and  Gentlemen of the Road . I've never gotten around to reading what is supposedly his best book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay , but I will one day. I had high hopes for  Telegraph Avenue  as well, but I have to say I was a little bit disappointed in it. It was a difficult read for me. Reading the book was a chore mainly I think because so many of the musical references were unfamiliar to me. I think I got the gist of their meaning in most instances, but not without more work than I like to do when I'm reading for pleasure. The action of the book takes place in Oakland, California, and has its roots in the Oakland of the 1970s during the heyday of the Black Panther movement and of blaxploitation films. I am old enough to remember those days and the cultural vibe of the period, but, as fo...