I’ve been at this for a long time. Not as long as many others, of course, but half of my life has been spent in these rooms. You wouldn’t know it from looking at me — well, you probably would, but let me have this — but I’ve put in more than twenty years attempting […]

I’ve always looked up to astronauts, even if I consider them to be brave and foolish in equal measure. They aren’t just tough — they’re smart, and courageous. They further the cause of science and advance the nature and purpose of the human race. They brought us Velcro, those pens that write upside-down, and that […]

“He would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.” (Orwell, Animal Farm) There’s a saying in Brazil — I write this as if I’ve ever been to Brazil, or as if I speak Portuguese, or have some […]

Across the eastern United States, cicadas are beginning to free themselves from their self-induced isolation, bursting from the earth after seventeen years of hibernation. They’ve spent far too long alone, deep within the comforting embrace of mother nature. They yearn for freedom. To live their lives, to further their species, to break free from almost […]

Narcissist. One of the most overused words I hear thrown around today — outshining even “existential” and “praxis”, perhaps. In many cases, though, as it was famously said: “I do not think it means what you think it means.” Those who favor hyperbole often label all sorts of people as narcissists, accurately or not. They’ll […]