War has NEVER been just for soldiers. Famine and epidemic accounted for most war deaths throughout history. Foraging armies stripped the countryside of food. The discovery of potatoes, that could be kept in the ground, and the invention of canning, went a long way toward reducing civilian starvation.

There's a B-36 in the Air Force Museum in Dayton. I don't know what impressed me more, seeing one for real or the fact that it was indoors. Seriously, if you're in Dayton, go there.

If we're going to ban athletes who abuse, how about others? There's a long list of luminaries from the arts and humanities who were thoroughly rotten people, like Roman Polanski or Frank Lloyd Wright, who once took his mistress to Europe and left his wife home. Ban their works from the canon and eliminate them from…

Someone with a history degree thinks the 1500's were "medieval?" By the 1500's, America had been discovered, the printing press had put all ancient knowledge into print, and before the end of the century, the earth would be circumnavigated several times, and Galileo and Shakespeare would be adults.

Real incident: I'm driving to work and someone comes up the exit ramp. I called 911 and got "What color was the car?"

Get yourself some sheet metal and make a big array of corner reflectors. Anything entering a corner reflector exits along exactly the same path. Cheap crude ones are used in bicycle reflectors and expensive ones are used in, for example, the laser reflectors on the moon. I'd bet that getting much of its energy…

My mother, who had a weird sense of humor, once served GREEN spaghetti on St. Patrick's Day. Not health food spinach pasta green, bright Kelly green. Looked really festive with red tomato sauce. Also green milk. My siblings took one look and bolted. I said "meh, it's just food coloring." Later that evening, my toes…

Because it is SO useful to drive across the U.S. and have no idea what state comes next. Or hear that we're sending troops to Carjackistan and have no idea where it is.

This may have had a benign intent but it still epitomizes a serious problem in American society, a vigilante attitude. Unless you're a duly constituted authority like a cop or a teacher in a classroom, you have ZERO authority over anyone else. You have ZERO authority to correct other people, or discipline their kids.…

When you were a kid, did you ever play in a vacant lot and encounter weeds that had an acrid smell when you break the stems? That, to me, is most vegetables. I eat them because I should, but I also do my taxes like I should, too.

Did Hitler get to pick out his own sippy cup? Ivan the Terrible? Genghis Khan? Caligula? King Herod? I rest my case.

Something college kids don't want to face: "Rape culture" is "Alcohol culture."

Americans are geniuses at denying the reality of hidden costs. There's a joke about a guy who sat down in an elegant restaurant, ordered a cup of coffee and was shocked at the bill. The manager explained that it was very expensive to run a restaurant with the fine atmosphere of his restaurant. The customer said "I'll…

That, plus they know that they'll be next once you've taxed the rich.

The loudmouth or con man who manipulates everyone because nobody else in the sitcom will stand up to him.

Heidi was the greatest thing ever! As a kid, I would get so pi$$ed that my favorite program would be cancelled if a football game ran late. Karma's a b****, ain't it, sports fans? Serves you right. So now the networks do the smart thing and just push the program back.

Run a banner at the bottom of the screen. A measure of how "urgent" the stations consider these warnings is that they don't run during commercials.

When we took a trip from Wisconsin to California, I told my sones (age 7 and 5) to keep their arms inside the car or the freeway bears would get them. "There are no freeway bears!" Then, less confidently, "Are there?"

#5: Doing 65 from Green Bay to Milwaukee is almost as fast as speeding (a 2-hour trip). From Omaha to Cheyenne or Salt Lake City to Reno at 80 vs. 65, no contest. When I drove across Texas (80 mph) a couple of years ago, people weren't doing 100, they were doing 80. Set speed limits where they should be, the 85th…

OMG!!! My Velveeta is only good until 2147!