Plagiarism

Under copyright law, what matters is not that you copied someone else’s work. What matters is what you copied, and how much you copied. Intellectual-property doctrine isn’t a straightforward application of the ethical principle “Thou shalt not steal.” At its...

Dental Drama

My dentists’s teeth are disgusting.  He’s great at doing his thing on other people but he clearly never really thought of applying the rules to himself.  Small and short teeth.  Kind of a like a bunch of Chicklets. Lots of spaces.  Hopefully he whistles.  He’s almost...

Rolland Garros

The three summer Grand Slams (French Open/Wimbledon/US Open) get me through the season.  And this year we’ve got the Olympics too.  This is how I survive the summer, the season most others pray for.  A season of heat, outdoor chores, sweating, extra laundry...

Half-Assed

I don’t know where or how or under what circumstances this phrase came to be, but my mother used to throw it around left and right / or maybe that should be left OR right since it’s just half.   Jeffrey, go pick up the apples, and don’t do your usual...

Suspending Belief

The year was 1965.  I was six years old and my family took our annual Christmas trip into Manhattan.  Thinking back, it’s no wonder my father was always a little grouchy.  It must have cost him a ton of money.  We stayed at the Hilton, skated at the Rockefeller...