I guess the only bad habit I ever broke was smoking. On the day of the Surgeon General's Report in 1964, I decided to quit smoking cigarettes and bought a pipe (still bad, of course). I smoked a pipe off and on until 1974, when I just kind of stopped, as keeping pipes going is a lot of work. I'd spent a lot of money on them, and I never liked ( Read more... )

I don't think I do. When I was young, I used to avoid walking under ladders, but that's common sense, most of the time (if someone is up there and drops something on you, anyway). I pass the salt by putting it down on the table, and I never give a gift of a knife (because it might cut the friendship). But I have violated all of those rules, on ( Read more... )

My favorite quote thus far has been, "Lord Arhys, how long have you been dead?", from Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

That was a superb novel, by the way, although written in the fantasy genre and itself as a sequel to The Curse of Chalion, another superb novel, in my humble opinion.

Thin crust. Topping from edge to edge (no big roll of dough at the rim). Cut in square pieces, about 2" square (a few smaller triangular pieces around the periphery, of course). Cheese, Italian sausage, black olives, onions, mushrooms, ham,. No Pepperoni, no dead fish.

My best childhood friend was Herbie Moussa. This is rather amazing, considering that I hated him for six or seven years ( Read more... )

Is it appropriate for governments to spend so much money on defense and weapons? How much is too much ( Read more... )

I kind of watched. I turned on the TV and the score was 3-0 favor Giants. I was doing things like this, so I only turned and looked once in a while. I missed all the fancy ads, I missed the halftime show (I had the TV mute on, and was listening to the local classical music station), and I missed every single score. I finally started looking ( Read more... )