Books worth recommending:
Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Ram BrafmanThis is an easy read and it's as amusing as it is informative. I also thought it was painful as some of the patterns of irrational behavior hit rather close to home.

Plowshares into Swords
The United States Navy has a new warship. Christened the USS New York, the ship was forged from steel removed from the remains of the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The decision to recycle the debris in this way has, admittedly, left me with mixed feelings.On the one hand, I love the idea of recycling that steel in a way that both commemorates those that lost their lives on 9/11 and inspires those that are now faced with the US Military's ongoing response to those attacks. I cannot imagine that an American sailor could feel anything but pride when given assignment on board the USS New York.On the other hand, I grieve the ob

A Mean Game
In the fall, I spend my free moments on Saturdays and Sundays watching football. That hardly sets me apart from most Texan males, but it has occasionally earned me a stinging rebuke from my daughter. Last season, she would merely cry every time I switched the television from cartoons to pigskin and say, "I hate football."This season, she is a year older and bit more observant. In fact, for a moment, I thought I had peaked some interest in her for the game this past Saturday. She sat in my lap and I explained lines of scrimmage, first downs, and tackling. As I described tackling, the player who was being tackled remained on the ground writhing and he ha

Imagine My Surprise
I made visits with an elder at Northcrest last week. All in all, a very pleasant experience. There was one exception.Our last stop was to see a woman who was almost ninety. She rarely gets our of her home. She rarely receives visitors. She is undoubtedly lonely.She is also undoubtedly difficult. She complains about the people who do take her places. She speaks ill of the people who do pay periodic visits to her home. She also speaks her mind about the ethnicity of some of her new neighbors.One anecdote that this woman felt compelled to share with us seemed to be an attempt at humor. She was at the hospital here in town waiting to see her doct