Category Archives: Miscellany
On Good and Bad Service
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd September 2021The complexity of 21st century life has made bad service the rule and good the exception. In general, the larger the enterprise the worse the service. There is one screaming exception to this rule – Amazon. I’ll come back to them below. Good service is always the same. It is prompt, courteous, exceeds expectations, and…
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Dog Dreams
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th September 2021If a lion could talk you couldn’t understand him. Ludwig Wittgenstein Do dogs dream? When observing a sleeping dog you’ve let lie you’ll likely notice that it makes involuntary movements and emits sounds. While all this activity may simply be reflex, I’ll allow that it is the expression of a canine dream. I’m aware that…
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Virtual Tour of the Sistine Chapel
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st August 2021The Vatican Museum has a virtual tour of the interior of the Sistine Chapel. With your mouse you can see everything Michelangelo painted. Not as good as being there, but you’ll never visit the place without anyone else there. The pinnacle of western art. Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour
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California Bans High End Computers
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th July 2021California is not only our most populous state, it’s also our goofiest. As a consequence of an energy bill passed in 2017, the state has banned the sale of high end gaming computers. Not to be outdone Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have issued the same ukase. “The state had recently published a paper looking into…
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Of Dogs and Socrates
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 21st March 2021Socrates stated that the unexamined life was not worth living when on trial for his life. Of course, he lost both. Let’s put the old Greek on hold for a while and consider the dog. Canis familiaris indisputably lives up to his reputation as man’s best friend. He seems effortlessly to possess all the qualities…
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Chrome Paranoia
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th February 2021If you regularly use the Chrome browser, you recently may have noticed that clicking on certain news links yields a site not found or similar message. Clicking the link one or two times more gets you to the site. This, at least in my experience and that of some other users, is a new phenomenon….
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On Corruption
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd February 2021Lord Acton’s famous line about the relationship of power and corruption needs no more than its first phrase. The two are conjoined twins. Under the right circumstances all of us are likely to succumb to the corrosive effect of authority. Some occupations have it as part of their job descriptions. While corruption is ineluctably part…
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To Err is Human, to Kvetch Divine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th November 2020Earlier this month Commentary published its 75th anniversary issue. It contains a long dialogue (Editing Commentary – A Conversation) between John Podhoretz the magazine’s current editor and his father Norman a previous editor. The conversation, nine pages of it, is a largely congratulatory depiction of how heavily edited is the copy published. John describes an…
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On Equality
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th August 2020We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal… This self evident truth is obviously not self evident. Thomas Jefferson undoubtedly knew such to be the case. He meant that we all should be equal before the law and that the laws should be designed without bias or special benefit not thought…
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Apropos of Nothing – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th June 2020Woody Allen’s autobiography caught my attention because of its title. Any book with “Nothing” in its title demands my notice. Allen and I grew up in neighboring parts of Brooklyn at the same time. He went to Midwood High School, I to James Madison – the latter less than 2 miles south of Midwood. Both…
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