Shortly after I recorded his, I heard a review of an exhibit celebrating native sons of the Czech Republic who were very famous, but mainly outside of the country. These include Franz Kafka, Sigmund Freud, and Oskar Schindler of “Schindler’s List” fame. Of the many speculations about why this might be so, a journalist interviewed for the segment pointed out that part of the problem was that the Czech language has no word for “bohemian.” Or rather, it has a definition but it may not be one many of us usually think about. Say “bohemian” and I immediately think
Read more →Here’s a picture of Frica’s response to my mentioning how easy it would be to perceive any problem she has or may have as the result of her traumatic beginning: Obviously as she sleeps on her pouffy pillow in her antique drawer surrounded by her toys, she’s unimpressed by my comments. But the fact remains that, alas, I’m only human. If I wanted to give such perceptions of what she experienced (or even just imagined she experienced) prior to my getting her a negative spin, I could have done that. And had I chosen to do that, those flaming
Read more →I’ve often said that I have the world’s best clients and patients. In addition to the study mentioned, this podcast was also precipitated by an email from a former client. She wrote to inform me that, even though she’d originally gotten her dog so she could compete in various dog sports, she realized that he didn’t enjoy this. Although she was disappointed at first, she’s come to realize what a great companion he is. I know how difficult making a decision that only she could make must have been for her, difficult enough that some people can’t make it.
Read more →What do my house, Frica’s birthing suite, and a den in the base of a tree stump have in common? Tune in to another thrilling and informative podcast to find out!
Read more →When I record these podcasts, sometimes I learn about things in my house that I never knew before. For example, I never would have guessed in a thousand years that a four-cup coffee maker could sound like a small cement mixer churning in the background when you use a voice recorder 10’ away from it. But so it is. Fortunately, it took longer to record this than it does to make four cups of coffee, so I hope it’s not too distracting.
Read more →I can’t listen to much news (or what now passes for news) and especially during election years without being reminded of the 2-minute hates. These were a form of public manipulation George Orwell described in his novel, 1984. If anything, these are more relevant now than in Orwell’s fictional world because much of our “news” is now presented to us in segments lasting 2 minutes or less. This raises another one of those chicken-egg questions: are we offered these snippets because our attention spans are so short and our critical thinking skills so limited that’s all we can handle?
Read more →Most people have heard the old sayings, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” and “Out of sight, out of mind.” Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to ignore what’s happening to our oceans and those who live in them. After all, they make up the bulk of the planet; whatever changes occur, surely they’ll be able to handle it. But increasingly the rate and nature of the oceanic changes occurring and the effect these will have on those of us living on that comparably small land mass is becoming more difficult to ignore…
Read more →About the same time as I was thinking about the politics of bull-fighting that precipitated this podcast, I heard an interview with a drone pilot who bombs targets in Afghanistan from a command a command post somewhere in the western US. He seemed like a nice enough guy and I’m sure his work requires a tremendous amount of skill. But I had trouble buying into the notion that what he did was as difficult as actually being there. As with the historical evolution of bull-fighting, this change in warfare struck me as another instance of leadership by remote instead
Read more →This podcast was fueled by a mass media article that I discovered somewhat misrepresented the findings in the original study after I’d finished the recording. When I looked up the original study, it turned out that there wasn’t enough data to conclude whether the benefits for cat-owners held for dog-owners. But even after rethinking this, it still wouldn’t surprise me if cat-owners had the edge for the reasons I mentioned. And I’ll add one more. An MD friend is a fan of the exercise-and-cardiovascular-health-as-a-function-of-sweat school of thought; if you’re sweating, chances are you’re exercising your heart muscle which is
Read more →I can’t decide whether my delight in play and playfulness is what keeps me (relatively speaking) young, or if it’s evidence that I’m becoming more immature as I get older. Whatever the reason, I prefer it to the alternative. To learn more about the gorilla research and see a video of the tag-playing gorillas, click here. And here are two pictures of Ollie and Bee engaged in their raucous version of canine tag, the watching of which could strike terror in the heart of anyone unfamiliar with normal dog behavior.
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