Occasionally a story comes along which makes me think of acts of bravery which go beyond normal expectations – acts which make me want to create a special award to individuals who have performed these deeds. For example, I would give the award to the first person who ever ate a raw oyster. Although oysters on the half shell are an accepted delicacy today, I eat them myself, I consider the first guy to try one to have been extremely brave (or extremely foolish). I live in an area which is home to many skunks - you know - the black animal with a white stripe down its back and an extremely potent defensive weapon. I have always heard that if you pick a skunk up by its tail so that its front paws cannot press on the ground, it is unable to deploy its weaponry. Again, the first man to discover this procedure, assuming it’s true, would receive one of my awards. I think a fitting name for this award would be something like the “debravety”, or perhaps the “fooly.” This morning’s new...
My alarm clock goes off every morning at eight, except for the few times when I have a breakfast date. Usually I wake up about an hour before that, or at least I partly wake up. It is important that I remain in a “not quite awake but not quite asleep” state, because I consider that time as the germination period for whatever seeds happen to have blown into my head.