Like my girls Sagan and Maggie, I am also fascinated with words.  One word that came up recently in my reading of The Bostonians (and then again in The Hazard of New Fortunes) in mountebank. A mountebank is a charlatan or, in most basic term,  a trickster.  This word was probably used so prominently during [...]

Amended 8/16/11 Hey guys! Did you read that crap in Time Magazine that said exercise won’t make you thin?  Did you read the counter in the Los Angeles Times? I’m sure Time was just trying to create a fuss and, even though the article was a bust, I think we can glean a great point [...]

My robot woke me up this morning. He yanked the covers off of me, blew a horn and his stupid monotone voice screeched, “Treadmill time, fatty!” After I finished my state-mandated 30 minutes of morning cardio, I was forced to shovel down a plate of oatmeal mush (without almond butter, guys!), and then the sensor [...]