Remember when you were a kid (and maybe even now), when you asked someone for something and they said “Say the magic word”? We all know that word is please, but there’s also a magic follow-up word pairing: thank you.   This past week I’ve received thank you(s)...

Lately, my life seems to be full of presentations. Some are by friends of mine (I’m a regular audience member at Fort Walla Walla Museum’s Living History program); other times, I’ve been the presenter. I’ve recently made a classroom appearance as a time traveler from...

Halloween approaches! With ghosts and goblins and particularly skeletons on the horizon, what better time to think about bones?   That seems like a limited topic.   Last week I would have agreed with you, Lily, but this week I received the results of my bone...

In this world of marketing and other fake news, I think most of us are aware that what things are called influences how we respond to them. People in the advertising industry have known this and used it against us for centuries, as have politicians. In those contexts...

Don’t let the title of this blog fool you, it is not violent in content! I am using the term “hack” in the sense of “life hack,” defined by an online dictionary as “a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient...

Ever visited a Hollywood back lot or seen pictures of one? If so, you may have viewed street front sets from the side and marveled at how an imposing multi-story brick façade conceals an imagined interior. It is a false front, a single wall supported by braces.  ...