What is today the second largest consumer products company in the world floated a buoyant slogan in 1891 for its invention, Ivory soap: “It Floats!” Procter & Gamble discovered that if air is whipped into the soap batch, soap won’t sink, get lost and turn into mush in the bottom of the tub. Another successful slogan for Ivory was “99 44/100 ...
You might recall “Ask Dr. Science,” a radio sketch in which a faux caller would ask Dr. Science a question and he’d come up with an off-the-wall answer. “He knows more than you do,” was the show’s motto, along with the disclaimer “He’s not a real doctor, but he has a Masters Degree...in science!”
Around our house, Mom’s the real ...
Reading a Supreme Court case in the days after Thanksgiving is sort of like browsing through a post-turkey-day refrigerator: lots and lots of containers and you’re not sure what’s inside each one. This Thanksgiving the “new” Court (we say new because of new Justice Barrett) served up a buffet, a veritable pot luck smorgasbord, the nine ...
My wife and I have spent some time in Montana in the winter and agree that, when it comes to cold weather, Montana is supreme, at least in our life experiences outdoors. A Snowshoe hike with friends in January was so cold that the smallest lapses in gear—a damp glove, boots without gators, a knit cap leaving an ear lobe exposed—were immediately ...
Zoom calls show an interesting array of wardrobe choices. On a recent call the zoomers remarked in good humor about the sartorial spectrum, quite an assortment of mostly casual wear. But one person, a leader, was dressed in coat and tie. For all we knew he may have been wearing cargo shorts too. But from what could be zoom-seen, he was sharply dressed ...
Today the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision (June Medical Services v. Russo) struck down a Louisiana law requiring a doctor who performs abortions to hold active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. Our blog today focuses not on the larger abortion debate or on whether the Court’s decision is agreeable or not on the merits. Instead ...
In learning to draw or paint, here’s a little secret. Hold your drawing up to a mirror. The mirror reveals how the drawing needs adjusting to look like the real subject. The inaccuracies jump out, especially in portraiture. For example, if you paint one eye of your subject slightly lower than the other, holding the painting up to the mirror will show ...
In times of national hardship like the present, stories from the American past are useful, but not predictably so. History doesn’t repeat itself exactly. Instead, it can give perspective on human experiences, showing how lives of those who’ve gone before connect to present lives in surprising ways. The past is never entirely past. So it is ...
What do we need and what don’t we need? What have we taken for granted? One word we hear a lot during these pandemic days of reassessment is essential. And many people now include outside on their list of essentials. “After home-schooling on Zoom all morning, my kids just have to get outside,” says a young mom balancing work, school and ...
Five adults and three kids, ages ranging from sixty-plus to under six months, gathered around the basement TV in Cincinnati last night, an extended family under Governor DeWine’s Stay-at-Home order. Five of the eight, including the kids, have been out of their home in NYC for seven weeks. My wife and I are the grandparents and glad to have the ...