On this day in 1948, one of my favorite minor Looney Toons characters was “born.” A Chuck Jones & Mel Blanc classic, no doubt… Read more

This morning in 1846 Henry Thoreau left his cabin on Walden pond to go into town. There he was arrested for refusing to pay his poll tax as an ongoing protest against what he felt to be an unjust war. He spent the better part of two days and a night in jail before an anonymous friend paid the tax – over Thoreau’s objections. Inspired directly by this experience, a year and a half later he would give a talk.... Read more

The gangster and pop icon John Dillinger was shot dead on this day in 1934. Read more

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Yusuf Islam was born on this day in 1948… Read more

http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/onn_embed/embedded_player.swf?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theonion.com%2Fcontent%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2FCHINESE_ROONEY_article_0.jpg&videoid=90421&title=China%E2%80%99s%20Andy%20Rooney%20Has%20Some%20Funny%20Opinions%20About%20How%20Great%20The%20Chinese%20Government%20IsChina’s Andy Rooney Has Some Funny Opinions About How Great The Chinese Government Is Read more

So, I’m making a small pot of coffee listening to the BBC news spot on my local NPR station when they do a story about a football hero, that is soccer, of course, who is currently the highest paid athlete in, I didn’t quite get it, perhaps all of Europe, maybe it was the world… His name is Cristiano Ronaldo. What caught me, however, and the reason for the post is that the BBC correspondent and presumably other media folk... Read more

American Zen Teachers Association THE DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF ZEN This is a brief and very much incomplete “family tree” of the various traditions found in America today. The Zen tradition begins in early Medieval China and from there branched throughout East Asia. As it moved from country to country the style changed, adapting to local conditions, although both the lineage itself and the deeper goal of awakening continued. Today many of these Zen streams have flowed to North America. Most... Read more

Over at his blog colleague Scott Wells makes sure that Walter Cronkite’s death doesn’t mean we miss the passing of the world’s oldest man, one of the last surviving WW I veterans, Henry Allingham, who died the same day as the renowned newsman, in his case at the age of 113 years, forty two days. Mr Allingham’s advice for long life was simple, and actually the reason I felt it necessary to post the notice of his death here. “Cigarettes,... Read more