Monthly Archives: December 2006

Whither Peak Oil?

If you’re a long time reader of these commentaries, you may have noticed the recurrence of a limited repertoire of subjects – the Iraq war, global warming, the evisceration of civil liberties in the U.S. and peak oil. As detrimental as I believe the administration of George W. Bush has been to life on [...]

Christmas, As We Grow Older

I suppose a bit of melancholy is appropriate to the dark, bleak days of December. That, and the solstice, are probably the reason the ancients decided to celebrate the Yule holiday when they did; with wisdom born millennia before the invention of psychology or the identification of Seasonal Affective Disorder, they knew we’d need [...]

The Toothpaste Smuggler

I’ll admit it; I’m a criminal of the modern age, a subversive in the Global War on Terror. I smuggle toothpaste.
My work requires me to fly every five or six weeks. After last summer’s “liquid bomb scare” in the UK, travelers have been prohibited from carrying any but the smallest amounts of liquids [...]

My Mother’s Data Set

On a December Saturday in the mid-60s – I must have been five or six – my parents took my brother and me for a walk in Seneca Park in Rochester, New York. Due to a freak warm spell, the weather was in the 70s and we were all wearing shorts. “Remember this,” [...]