The New Yorker of November 2, 2020, has a book review by Philip Deloria titled “Defiance.” The book is Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation (Knopf) by Peter Cozzens. Without actually naming the 1619 Project, Deloria's review challenges its key assumption -

John McWhorter's 2015 DailyBeast article, “Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion”, clarified what was confusing about contemporary black activism. He explained that opposition to racism used to be a political stance,

I was disappointed – but not surprised – when RBG died a month ago from today. What surprised me – amazed me actually – was the New York Times article Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wasn’t All That Fond of Roe v. Wade.

For years I've used an electric razor as recommended by my dermatologist. He advised that electric shavers are better for my sensitive skin because there's no chance for cuts, nicks and/or razor burn. He didn't recommend any particular type of electric razor so I initially used a foil razor, which worked fine – I stopped getting “pseudofolliculitis barbae”

Until recently, when I wanted to investigate a book, I would just see what was said about it online. Most often, I would check what reviews there were on

The end an email discussion about New York stop-and-frisk:

I'd stop digging now. You've hit the gusher of white privilege. Your arguments are troubling on multiple levels.

So, what was the gusher of white privilege?

The Exodus Sect: The True Origins of Christianity by Eugene D. Mertz

Initially for me, this was a very frustrating book. My purchase of it was triggered by his article, The Quest For The Mythical Jesus (Free Inquiry, Volume 40, No. 3 – April / May 2020). I found myself fascinated by how Mertz tied together findings from archaeology, mythology, ancient history, linguistics and extensive biblical scholarship to support of his hypothesis that Christianity originated from an ancient Hebrew secret society,

A few weeks ago I discovered 750words.com – and immediately learned I had actually used it nearly a decade before, for nine days in March 2011. That meant I was already a member, since apparently you never get dropped even if you don't do anything for years.

Today's New York Times article, 100 Days of Protest: A Chasm Grows Between Portland and the Rest of Oregon, spells out a division that evoked my memory of extended family in Oregon – a Portland-based cousin and her older brother, who lived in Klamath Falls.

1 out of every 9 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the USA. On December 17, 2018, I learned that I had joined that group of about 3 million men in the US. For those like me, whose cancer is considered aggressive,