by Phil Houseal | Apr 10, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Food, Philosophy
April 10, 2024–One of our kids’ favorite family activities was responding to The Kids’ Book of Questions, by Gregory Stock. It was a collection of 260 open-ended questions with answers you could not find in any book. Rather, they posed moral dilemmas, what-ifs, and...
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 | Mar 13, 2024 | All Articles, Philosophy
March 13, 2024–I sometimes think about Vicki. Vicki was a high school classmate I grew up with back in our small hometown. We both came from large Catholic families, started Kindergarten together, attended catechism and received first communion together, shared...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 6, 2024 | All Articles, Education
March 6, 2024–Judging by comments on community news sites–or by riding with anyone–everyone believes they are the only ones that know how to drive. I was reminded last week that I don’t follow all traffic laws, for the simple reason that I don’t understand all the...
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 21, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Feb 21, 2024–When someone asks you out for coffee, the first question that should come to mind is, “What’s in it for me?” Sound cynical? Why? Whether you are aware of it or not, every interaction between two people is a transaction. To be productive, it has to be....
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...
by Phil Houseal | Feb 7, 2024 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Feb 7, 2024–Everyone loves a frosty chocolate milkshake. But would you instead consume–separately–a raw egg, half cup of cane sugar, a cup of warm milk, a cup of heavy cream, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, a spoonful of salt, and 3 tablespoons of chocolate syrup?...
