Category Archives: Short piece
Lifetime
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd January 2024You’ve likely received notices from various sources offering a lifetime of service for a relatively small fee. A typical promo is a lifetime of a huge amount of online storage (about 10TB or more) for $50. By comparison, Dropbox sells 2TB/year for around $120. Hence, the offer appears too good to be true. Well, it…
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Error
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th December 2023She’s been my lifelong companion. Never left my side for a nanosecond. I’m using the feminine just by default. Like the supreme being, error and gender are as unrelated as ham and gefilte fish. She doesn’t just afflict humans or other animate objects – she suffuses the universe and her basic nature is more mysterious…
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The Meaning of Life
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th December 2023Humans, at least since the time of the ancient Israelites, and the Greeks more than 2000 years ago, have tried to figure out why we are here and what is our purpose in the vast Cosmos we inhabit seemingly with the significance of a single photon in the Milky Way. Well, after a life approaching…
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Long Division
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 13th August 2023Dividing by two isn’t very hard. But if the divisor is large the resultant halves will also be quite large. The disposition of large countries has never been homogeneous no matter the dense accretion of national myths. Typically, there is a degree of truth on either side of internal disagreements. It is rare for one…
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Governance
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th July 2023People today seem utterly unsatisfied with the government under which they live. The more tolerant or representative a government is, the more vehement the expression of dissatisfaction. This obvious dissent from what the government proposes or allows among the democracies may merely reflect what people are permitted compared to governments that are more repressive. No…
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No News
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th June 2023The title of this article is what’s available on the numerous TV outlets purporting to be purveyors of news. Their problem is time inflation. There just isn’t that much real news in comparison to the time devoted to its dissemination. The product delivered as “news” is largely devoid of content though enveloped in a sesquipidelian…
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Straws, Camels, and the United States
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th April 2023Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaint. ——————————————William Osler —————————————————— In addition to the…
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Too Much Bread
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 31st January 2023Man does not live by it alone, but too much makes him obese. Not just physically fat, but mentally flabby as well. Until about the last 80 years the main human activity was devoted to survival. Hobbes famous declaration that in a state of nature – ie, one without government – life would be solitary,…
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Alma Mater Bans Language
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 25th December 2022Not to be outdone by the parvenu institution on the west coast (Stanford for those of you who are not au courant), my alma mater and that of my children has decided to go full frontal and has banned language. As a loyal alum, I can not name the institution as it no longer has…
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A Tale of Two and a Half Doctors
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th December 2022It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it…
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