by Mark O'Brien | Apr 30, 2015
I don’t know if I’m your garden-variety hoarder. But I do tend to be a rather indiscriminate and prolific accumulator of thoughts. And I like to hang onto them until two or more present common threads in some form or fashion. In this instance, three of...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 29, 2015
Here’s one of the most commonly dispensed, least-examined admonitions I can think of: “Don’t burn your bridges.” Provided you exercise at least a modicum of discernment and discrimination, why not? To establish the point, I offer this brief,...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 28, 2015
There’s a difference between melting and dissolution, as witnessed in the contrast between America’s former glory as the world’s Melting Pot — and today’s inglorious reality of cultural conflict, class friction, and political palaver about...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 27, 2015
A recent article reminds us what an unimaginably unfair place the world is — “A global wine shortage could soon be upon us” — its message of dread and foreboding including this catastrophic information: Last year, global supply for wine already barely...
by Mark O'Brien | Apr 24, 2015
idiom: noun — an expression, the meaning of which is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements My recent post about malaprops had me thinking about idiomatic expressions. One, in particular, has stuck with me because of its pertinence to the...
