Story of the Red Bear   The Story of the Red Bear Many years ago, at a flea market on the parking lot of a seedy pizzeria next to the highway, my daughter […]

The city I live in, Geneva, has many strange aspects. In some ways it’s a city like no other.  It is very small, but likes to see itself as very big. Somewhat like that image of a little Pussycat looking at self […]

Easter doesn’t end with the egg-search on Sunday. It goes on for at least another week, and so it should, otherwise, why bother? Here some stuff that has been going through my mind for several years. Now it’s on […]

We’ve become used to economic crises, since they are endemic to our system. And some of us might remember the oil crises of the ‘70s (from which we learned very little) and the brown-outs and black-outs, and the […]

It’s time to come back to reality. Fear and loathing and ridiculous conspiracy theories that have no proof are not how we’ll meet the challenges facing our democratic societies. These will only lead to (more) […]

The coming confirmation hearing of Amy Coney Barrett is something of a double-edged sword for both parties. It’s being done at a time when the US, and even the planet, are exhausted by Trump’s grand guignol s […]

I’m waiting for Hollywood to pick up this story:

For the past years, R. T. Custer (no one knows his real name except his parents, I think) has been battling Swatch Group. Some reporters in the watch biz have […]

Are you getting tired of the circus around wearing masks? The demonstrations that some say had 500,000 people, others 20,000? The sick comparisons that say “mask = yellow star?”The professors and doctors coming […]

This is the last section on conspiracy theories (for the moment). It is written to bear witness to what I see as a genuine poison in discussions these days about matters political and social. More and more […]

My last post was a general explanation about why I feel it’s important to expose conspiracy theories for what they are: in short, dangerous bullshit (cf. Harry Frankfurt On Bullshit). Dangerous because they get […]

The following is the tip of an iceberg that I have been writing and gathering information on for ages it would seem. I’ve cut the story in three parts (Part 2 and Part 3 plus a note on masks). No one ha […]

In 2015, thanks to the Baselworld jungle
drum, I landed an appointment with a man named R. T. Custer. It’s his name, by
the way, and he insists on the initials – his parents’ choice?– because he’s […]

Rubric: Racism is not just a knee on a neck…. It’s bigger than that, and it’s deeper.

In the wee hours of June 12, as every morning, I clicked on PBS Newshour and listened to the news while sorting through […]

A word from the front lines

Every day since the “confinement” began, we, the confined, have come out in one way or another to applaud and thank those who have been out and about, facing the cor […]

The view from outside

When the announcement came through on March 13 that schools would be shut down for an indeterminate period, the kids were a little bit thrilled. At least the ones I teach were, and I […]

The trick to enhance positives and mitigate negatives

Just a few weeks ago, after days and days of strenuous deflection, gesticulation, self-victimization, media-aided campaigning and incoherent bilge about […]

Settling in, finding the rhythm, absorbing the shock, observing. This is even shorter than the last installment.

Sometimes the weather fits the mood, sometimes vice versa

The week started with […]