Last weekend Justin Tucker kicked the longest field goal in NFL history. He also claimed that the best NFL kickers regularly kick even longer ones in practice. This got me thinking about the evolution of NFL kicking and the phenomena of resistance to change.
Consider an example. I grew up in St. Louis and our NFL team then was the St. Louis (now Arizona) Cardinals. From 1963 to 1978 our kicker was Jim Bakken. Continue reading Have Field Goal Kickers Improved?
Life is mysterious, I’ll never understand more than a little of it, but I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve received more love than I deserved; learned a little; and found joy in helping others. There are many things I should have loved but didn’t; many things I should have learned but didn’t; many people I should have helped but wasn’t able to. Continue reading Ted Kennedy’s Eulogy for his brother Robert
(The piece responds to the fanatics—the American Taliban—want to impose their religious beliefs on all of us . And by the way, there is no fetal heartbeat at 6 weeks because there is no heart at 6 weeks. A 6-week old embryo is about the size of a grain of sand.) Continue reading Must Christians Oppose Abortion?
In 1930 the historian and philosopher Will Durant—who was at that time a famous public intellectual—received a number of letters from persons declaring their intent to commit suicide. The letters asked him for reasons to go on living. In response Durant asked a number of luminaries for their views on the meaning of life, publishing those responses in his 1932 book, On the Meaning of Life
A good friend wrote me recently. He said that his twelve-year-old son has begun to wonder if life is meaningless and if death ruins the joy of life. Continue reading Children and Meaning
