[I] like to walk. Some walks stand out more than others. I am writing this essay in Florida, where we took the kids for their spring break. We are staying at my in-laws. A bike path encircles the community they live in and I love walking on that bike path. A complete circuit is two…

[N]ot long ago, while on a Simon Winchester marathon, I accidentally purchased the abridged audiobook edition of Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire. I didn’t realize it was an abridged edition until I listened to Winchester’s introduction, in which he made it quite plain that this was an abridged edition. I…

[W]alter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, A.J. Liebling, Hal Boyle, Homer Bigart. I suspect that most readers would recognize the first two names on this list. Walter Cronkite was a renowned anchorman for CBS news. Trusted by the American people so much, that when he voiced his opposition to the war in Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson is…

[L]ately, the radio in the car has been tuned to country music. Normally I listen to 80s music, but Kelly isn’t a fan of 80s music, and for some reason, we both enjoy country. This isn’t something I could openly admit a decade ago. Country music carries with it a set of stereotypes. But I…

[A]rlington, Virginia, and surrounding towns host an abundant network of bike paths. We use them frequently. Not for riding bikes, but for walking. On a warm spring evening, the bike paths are crowded with walkers, joggers, skateboarders, strollers, and, of course, bicycles. The bike paths serve as the connective tissue for dozens of local parks…

[A]n app, in theory, should do one thing really well. There are two problems with this. First, many apps often try to do more than one thing. Second, even if all apps followed this rule, it would require us to install many apps on our mobile devices to do all of the things we want…

[H]ow many times has this happened to you? You are replying to a text message, and click the Send button, only to discover that you have texted the wrong person. Sometimes the reverse happens. You receive a text message from someone that makes no sense at all. It is usually followed, seconds later, by an…

[T]he Little Miss recently got her first diary. She was very excited about it. It came with a small key (certain to be lost) with which she can lock the diary after writing in it. I was pleased to see her get a diary. I wish I had started a diary at five years old.…

[E]verywhere I look in the technology world, people are clamoring for more “distraction-free” interfaces. Yet at the same time we are adding more and more screens to our environments with which to contain things to distract us. Take me for example. As I write this, I have three screens in front of me: two large…

[W]hen someone discloses the ending of a TV show, movie, or book to someone who hasn’t yet seen or read it, we call that a spoiler. But what is the word for someone who gets partway through a movie, TV show, or book, and turns to the person next to them and asks, “Does so-and-so…

[B]eginning on Monday, April 10, the blog will have a new schedule. There will be a new post Monday through Thursday each week. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, things will be quiet. There are two reasons for this change: As much fun I have writing these posts (and I do have fun–more fun than any other…

[I] was sad to read that Don Rickles died earlier this week. He was 90 years old, and vibrant to the end. The New York Times had a good obituary. He died on April 6, 2017, outliving Isaac Asimov by exactly 25 years. Obituaries fascinate me. When I sit down to read a newspaper, I…