The ability to make fire is one characteristic which distinguishes Man from animals. Yet I must admit that, although I’ve always heard stories about the primitive methods by which this can be done, I deserve to rank with the animals – because I still don’t know how. In the days when even intelligent people smoked […]

Those of you who’ve seen the 1967 movie The Graduate may or may not remember it very well, but if you were asked to quote a single word from it, I think I know what it would be. There’s a scene towards the beginning of the film where the hero, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is […]

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. One of my simplest joys is finding a coin in the street – usually a penny, but sometimes something larger, and, once in a great while, a paper dollar or more. I bring these treasures home, and put them in a row on top of a bureau. […]

This may or may not need explaining, because it seems so intuitively obvious – but there appears to be a universal preference for smoothness, as opposed to roughness. The first example which jumps to mind is SKIN. Nobody wants to have, see, or feel, a skin with pimples, warts, or any other kind of bumps. […]

“Adventure!” There’s something exciting about the very word – which advertisement-writers well know.  You can have Travel Adventures, Romantic Adventures – even Restaurant Adventures. In fact, dining out in different eating establishments may be all some people need to satisfy their adventurous yearnings. But there’s an age factor at work here. The younger you are, […]

Most people have probably forgotten why we call psychiatrists “shrinks.” (I had a friend who used to call them “trick-cyclists.”) But the term “shrink” is really a contraction of “head-shrinker,” and comes from the notion that, dealing with our heads as they do, they are like the natives of primitive tribes, who used to shrink […]

When electricity was still a novelty, it was discovered that a slight electric impulse could be passed down a long line of people, all holding hands. You might think that some bright person, with this knowledge, could have figured out, that here was possibly a new way of transmitting messages virtually instantaneously. If human flesh […]

Isn’t it remarkable that the vast majority of all the games we play involving physical activity are focused upon an object, usually round, which we call a “ball.” It can be small as a marble, or large as a bowling ball, light as a ping-pong ball, or heavy as a “medicine ball,” a sphere, as […]

In England it is, or used to be, a big event to turn 21. At my 21st birthday party I made place-cards with verses for each of the guests, who represented different eras in my young life. One was for a fellow-student at University College, London, where we were undergraduates, studying for what was called […]

Food has no educational value, no sex appeal, no ethical significance, and very little connection with underwear. Like us, it just sits there, waiting to be consumed by something greater than itself. The Great Alimentary Canal is part of the Universal Chain of Being, Nature’s Grand Design for recycling everything. But what would Food be […]