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Main Street Matters/ Walkability and its value
Apr 18, 2013 12:00 amAcross the country pedestrians are enjoying the downtown experience. Walkability is both the goal and the result of the Main Street approach of design, promotion, and economic restructuring strategies. Norway Downtown works to make the pleasure of walking part of the downtown experience.
What I've Learned
Apr 18, 2013 12:00 amImagine you had your very own Hubble Space Telescope. Wouldn't it be fun to look at distant stars and see the planets that circle them?
I have good news and bad news.
The good news is, the institute that controls Hubble, grants access to amateur astronomers. Competition is fierce, but if you wrote a convincing enough proposal, there is a chance it could be accepted, and you'd get to spend some time with the big eye in the sky.
The bad news is, the Hubble can't see planets in other solar systems. It's not powerful enough.
What I've Learned
Apr 11, 2013 12:00 amIt was a Saturday afternoon in1959. I was at the Melba theater in Guthrie, Oklahoma enjoying a double feature: The Giant Gila Monster and The Killer Shrews. I was 10.
I don't remember anything about the Gila Monster movie, but Killer Shrews made a lasting impression on me.
A group of people – five men and a woman – are in an adobe house on an island. Outside are dog-sized shrews, the result of an experiment gone wrong. Food on the island, that is to say, wild game, has run out, and the shrews are desperately wanting to feast on the humans.
What I've Learned
Apr 04, 2013 12:00 amIn 2009, I wrote a column about Irena Sendler, a young Polish woman who smuggled hundreds of Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, saving them from the Nazis.
The other day, I watched Argo, the movie that won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture. Argo's plot – trying to smuggle people endangered by a deadly regime – made me think of Sendler.
There is a movie about her that should be seen. I'll say more about that in a bit.
What I've Learned
Mar 28, 2013 12:00 amIn the mid 1980's, the U.S. government loaned me to the British government to serve on a scientific expedition in Kenya. (I was in the Army, thus Uncle Sam considered me loanable.)
When this little vacation – for that's how I thought of it – was over, I would return to an active duty unit and would be due for my semi-annual physical fitness test. I was concerned about staying in shape.
The expedition was stationed in the Tsavo Game Reserve, and my job was to organize and run the camp, a skill most of the scientists and college students lacked.
What I've Learned
Mar 21, 2013 12:00 amWhat are the chances of a bird pooping on you? And what are the chances of it happening at the worse possible moment?
I was standing in formation in the Army, waiting for a colonel to inspect us. We were dressed in our best uniforms with all our ribbons and patches and badges affixed. Our brass belt buckles shined like mirrors, as did our shoes.
It was a company formation, so there were close to 150 soldiers.
What I've Learned
Mar 14, 2013 12:00 amI fell in love six times last week, all at the same moment. The oldest of my loves is 22, the youngest, 12.
Perhaps I should explain.
Several years ago, a group called Lulu and the Lampshades recorded a song called When I'm Gone. The accompaniment is played on a plastic cup.
Learn to do this and you will be the epitome of cool. Begin with a plastic cup sitting mouth down on a table. Clap your hands twice. Tap the bottom of the cup (or the table) with three alternating taps (left hand, right hand, left hand). Clap your hands once. Pick up the cup. Set it back down.
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