DavidAltshuler,M.S. For the purposes of this essay, allow that everyone has some good qualities. And some that are not so attractive. Pretend further, that you are dating a person who focuses only on your imperfections. “You smell like a bag of farts,” your partner begins. “Your car stinks; you stink; you don’t make enough money; you…Read the full article
Jim Lovell’s rejection was based on a medical condition which, as it turned out, he didn’t even have. Nonetheless, rejected he was. The Mercury Seven astronauts were seven somebody elses. John Glenn, Alan Shepard, and Gus Grissom made the cut. Jim Lovell did not. Lovell had experience with rejection. He had wanted to attend MIT…Read the full article
Statistically improbable as it may seem, a Miami driver actually did come to a complete stop at a crosswalk this past Saturday. A dozen of my running buddies and I waved cheerfully as we took a step on to 57th Ave. We then froze in our proverbial tracks as another car whipped around the stopped…Read the full article
What if there were one simple answer to your unrelenting doubts? What if that unassuming solution would take away all the pain? What if that one unique answer were hidden in plain sight? What if that solution were so mind-numbingly obvious that, once you had stumbled upon its blinding clarity, you spent the next several…Read the full article
We are getting slower. We aren’t running as far. We aren’t running as often. By any objective measure, our running group is failing to meet goals. What purpose could a running group possibly have other than to improve speed, distance, and frequency? Isn’t the point of getting together at oh-dark-hundred to run faster? Don’t we…Read the full article
“Quick question: is this break ever going to be over or what? Because I am about ready to lose it. Am I stuck in an alternative dimension? Has time stopped? Am I traveling backwards at the speed of light? Is school ever going to start again? Are my kids ever going back to their classrooms?…Read the full article
Me: “Amazing Spider-Man number 6?” One of my Running Buddies: “First appearance of The Lizard. Stan Lee, author, drawn by Steve Ditko, 1963. Record sale price, about $70,000 in near mint condition.” Me: “1955 World Series?” Another of my Running Buddies: “First win by Brooklyn Dodgers. Seven games. Dodgers lost the first two to the…Read the full article
Ten-year-old Jaime is struggling with her multiplication tables. Four times nine gives her trouble. Seven times eight is particularly perilous. Four times nine frequently elicits an answer of 42, occasionally 32, seldom 36. Seven times eight can be pretty much any two-digit number. Jamie’s parents send her upstairs to do another worksheet. “Check your answers,”…Read the full article
Applicants to medical school are aware of two deadlines. For the purposes of this column we’ll call these deadlines “the early deadline” and “the late deadline.” Indeed, all information that follows is “truthful” if not “factual.” (You have a busy day, gentle reader, and I certainly have better things to do than to complete any…Read the full article
One of my running buddies is bad at math. Terrible. Truly. Took only the one required math course in college to fulfill the distribution requirement: algebra one. Took it three times. Finally squeaked through with a C-. Promptly forgot what little he had learned. Could no more factor a simple trinomial than I could flap…Read the full article