Articles

Freedom from Choice

Have you heard the big news? Hasbro, the maker of the Monopoly board game, is getting rid of one of the game’s eight playing pieces. In case you haven’t played for a while, the current pieces are (in order of lamest to coolest) : thimble, iron, wheelbarrow, boot, tophat, dog, battleship and racecar. We, the public, get to decide which piece gets the axe. Obviously, the racecar is totally safe. Everyone loves it. It has wheels - which makes sense in a game that goes in a circuit - and it looks awesome. The battleship is formidable. The tophat is dapper. The boot kind of looks like the race ...

Read More

The Man Who Had Everything

Unlike Fred Flinstone, and a thousand other cartoon/sitcom/family drama stereotypes, I really love my mother in law.  She’s always treated me like a son, and she’s never even ONCE tried to hit me with a rolling pin.  And she gives me great Christmas presents.  Usually. This year, in addition to a Barnes & Noble gift card (woohoo!) she gave me another gift -- a Brookstone battery-operated wine bottle opener.  “Oh no!”  I thought.  But it was official.  I had finally become The Man Who Had Everything. Don’t get me wrong, my hands DO get tired pulling cork after cor ...

Read More

Worrying

Do you have any recurring dreams?  I have one and it’s actually more of a nightmare.   It’s my  3rd Year at USC Law School.  It’s the last day of the last semester when I discover that I’ve forgotten to go to the required math class (I know — no math in law school, stay with me).  This class has met every day.  Now it’s time for the final exam on “Advanced Algetrigacalculculogicas.” Fail it, and I don’t graduate.  The professor stalks around the room handing out test booklets the thickness of the Dallas phone book.  I look at mine.  It appears to be comprised of char ...

Read More