I created the “Connecting the Dots” blog site to investigate and interpret a global range of topics from an international, and personally quirky, perspective.
My topics in “Connecting the Dots” include politics, the environment, fun issues, social issues and anything else that catches my attention. I hope you enjoy them, and will join me through your comments.
I inaugurated the “GOLDEN FLEECE AWARD” some time ago, which rewards the most stupid, inept, criminal and just plain dumb activities of public officials and others, everywhere. I have now added another award, the “GOLDEN EAGLE AWARD”, which celebrates remarkably positive activities of public officials and others. I would appreciate your help in identifying great examples of both.
I came across the following two groups of what I am calling “Fun Memories”. Both require a certain age to be directly funny, and the …
We all know that we are in a soundbite world. It doesn’t matter if you spend your life on the phone, just read news feeds, …
The chestnut trees of Europe tell a hidden story, charting the fortunes of ancient Rome and the legacy it left in the continent’s forests. …
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) site at Bempton Cliffs welcomes about 3,000 puffins to Puffin Paradise every summer. From April to …
A good status report: On May 8, political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt published an op-ed in the New York Times reminding readers that …
For three days every year, Thailand transforms into a wet and wild party, the Songkran Festival. But this ancient festival is far more than just …
Forty-eight million adults in the U.S. read at or below the third-grade level, to use the blog’s title here, American illiteracy. Many of these adults struggle …
This blog is an article by Heather Cox Richardson on a spectacular speech by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. I think it follows in the footsteps …
I could call this blog a melancholy but poignant moment that I should certainly take to heart far more often and, I suspect, many of …
This story is about Charles Darwin, but it is also about an institution I have to admit I didn’t know existed, but I’m very glad …
