Archive for June, 2008
100 MPG
Monday, June 30th, 2008USA Today recently featured Louis Hudgin of Gilbert, Ariz., and other members of a growing subculture in America—hypermilers.
These highway pioneers seek out innovative tactics to nudge their fuel efficiency upward. For Hudgin, the 88 miles per gallon his 2000 Honda Insight hybrid clocked during the USA Today report was “pitiful.” He regularly cracks the 100-mpg […]
Gun Control, Self-Control
Friday, June 27th, 2008The Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia ban on handguns yesterday, and people from every stripe of Second Amendment persuasion have something to say about the measure. “Advocates for gun rights praised the ruling and said the decision provides them with a clear opening to issue a variety of legal challenges to existing restrictions […]
Pay Me Now, Pay Me Later
Thursday, June 26th, 2008I thought I had a great idea. I had been buying high-end dog food for our pooch, Suki, for the past year or so. The kind that promises abundant nutrition and advertises benefits like “a healthy coat.”
Then, during a grocery run a couple months ago, I spotted a ginormous bag of really cheap dog food. […]
Chomp!
Friday, June 20th, 2008On this day in 1975, Universal Studios released Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film Jaws. Summer swimming hasn’t been the same since.
I was only 10, and our family didn’t go to movies, so I didn’t see Jaws until years later on VHS. But even at that later date and with a somewhat jaded perspective on all things […]
Keeping Track of the Edges
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008With record rainfall lately, it’s been a challenge to keep my yard mowed. Even a weekly journey across the green is stretching the limits of acceptability. Every 1.7 days would be better, but who has that kind of time? So this was not a good year for my weed trimmer to go on the fritz.
It […]
Blind as a Gifted Photographer
Friday, June 13th, 2008I heard pianist Henry Butler interviewed last week on NPR’s All Things Considered and read an article about him at npr.org. Butler “started playing music as a child in the New Orleans housing projects. Blind since birth, he went on to study at the Louisiana State School for the Blind, learning classical piano scores in […]
Astronaut Charlie Duke: Memories of Apollo 16
Friday, June 6th, 2008The following remarks are edited from Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke’s January 21 interview with Today’s Pentecostal Evangel. Duke and Apollo 16 mission commander John Young spent three days on the moon in April 1972. The story of that mission, and of Charlie and Dotty Duke’s spiritual journey, is featured in the Evangel’s June 15 […]