by Phil Houseal | May 1, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
May 1, 2024–I’m nearsighted and thankful for it. Not being farseeing has completely influenced my life, in sometimes unexpected ways. For those of you that can see a mole on a gnat’s nose on a barn door 100 yards away, here’s what being nearsighted is like: you can’t...
by Phil Houseal | Apr 3, 2024 | All Articles, Education, History, Philosophy
April 3, 2024–Edges and spaces are where the important things hide. I first noticed the significance of edges as a boy growing up on a farm. The Midwest topography is a quilt of corn fields and beans. When you stand in the middle of a sea of soybeans and turn a...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 27, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
March 27, 2024–For some reason, grits was the topic of a recent online discussion. The food brought up clearly delineated preferences, “delineated” as in above or below the Mason-Dixon line. Southerners love grits; northerners don’t. This started a long discussion of...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 20, 2024 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Mar 20, 2024–Man’s fascination with light arcs back to that time he first rubbed two sticks together and created fire. First, this had to be one amazing guy. Who was that caveman, hulking about in a tiger-skin toga, who looked at a fallen dead limb and thought, I...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 29, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Food, History, Philosophy
Feb 28, 2024–As a kid I remember first seeing the Jeopardy category “Potpourri.” I was not familiar with the word, but after watching I soon learned it meant “place to use up leftover material that all together wasn’t enough to make up an entire category with one...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 14, 2024 | All Articles, History, Philosophy
Feb 14, 2024–Are we hug deprived? Did you know that when two people hug, their hearts are only two inches apart? Some say this induces a sympathetic response, when the electrical fields around both beating organs intersect, creating a bond. This lowers stress, boosts...