• If I want to believe something, then it must be the truth.  Or so everyone says.

• On several occasions, I have been inspired to contact the author of a given physics or math paper and offer my thoughts or ask a follow-up question.  I won’t namedrop, as these people are not celebrities in the usual sense, but experts in their field.  (Besides, they would probably deny having heard of me, or from me.)  My point is that each time, without exception, the scientist promptly, cordially and personally answered my layman’s inquiry, which I appreciate.  It is both unfounded and outmoded to view people-of-science as having no personality or patience for social interactions and concerns.  Quite the contrary.

• By the way, one of the little treasures in my file drawer is personal correspondence from the late Martin Gardner, author of the Scientific American column Mathematical Games.  Sadly, Mr. Gardner is no longer in a position to deny having heard of me.

• If I hear Donald Trump complain one more time about people “not being nice” to him, I’m not going to vote for him.  Otherwise — I’m still not going to vote for him.  He’s sick.

• Now circulating on Facebook, a photo of a mossy gravestone bearing an epitaph to a cat named Dewey: “He was only a cat but he was human enough to be a great comfort in hours of loneliness and pain.”  No matter what one thinks of cats (or how one tries to avoid it), this is a touching expression.  But it got me thinking (always a bad sign): why should I not make gravesites for the things that were important in my life?  For example, should I bury my copy of Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee?  Should I find a field to plant my vinyl single of Strawberry Fields Forever?  Why should I just recycle the items I once loved, when the human thing to do would be to put them in the ground and put a stone on top that tells the world how much they meant to me?  Not narcissistic, no, not at all.

• I specifically want to point this out: specifically may be an adverb, but there is no such adjective as specifical.  The Lords of Linguistics have bent the rules.  But don’t thank me.  That’s what this blog is for — to investigate items like this, or Benghazi.

• Why is self-deprecation such a surefire way to get people to like you?  Because it tells others that you are not a threat to their superiority.

• Oftentimes on this blog, I use words that The Grammarist thinks I should not use, such as oftentimes.  Even more often, I will leave a train of thought decoupled or disconnected.  While it may appear that I have invited the reader to draw her own conclusions, the reality is that I have run out of steam, leaving the reader to mop things up.  I could cite examples, but I would rather you discover them on your own.

• I find that time passes much more slowly when the television is off.  For people-of-age, this is an important finding.

• When I am dead, it is not going to matter to me how many times you visit my grave or what flowers you place upon it, which is the reason that I will not have one.  People visit graves for their own purposes.  If you choose to do so, make it a good one… for you.