The Blaisdell Blog

Did you feel the Earth move?   Or rather, did you feel it slow a bit under your feet?   It has.               In what is not quite so cataclysmic an occurrence as one might think, the Earth is experiencing its fourth year of slow down.   The rotational speed of our planet is not a fixed thing.   The Earth wobbles on its axis, our magnetic poles switch polarities, the amount of solar wind that reaches and reacts with our planet increases and decreases.     All these natural phenomena have occurred in the past and will occur again.   Right now, it is time for our planet to slow a bit.             While this may not mean that buildings are toppling there are still consequences.   First, geophysicists do measure the rotational speed of our planet very precisely.   The variations occur in milliseconds.   That is the minu...

Time Magazine should make President Chester A. Arthur its Man of the Year for 2017.   Yes, the award would have to be made posthumously, but why discriminate against the mortally challenged?   Hear me out, and you will agree. Chester A. Arthur was our 21 st President, a New Yorker who had never held elective office.   In fact, he was considered a joke—a buffoon—possibly a criminal—certainly a fool.   He was a last-minute addition to the presidential ticket made to satisfy dubious political machinations.   He was, in short, never once considered either qualified to be President or of having a snowball’s chance to become one.   Sometimes, things fall apart. Arthur worked for the New York City political machine called Tammany Hall.   He was known as a good sport, an effective worker, a “party” man and a dependable fixer.   What ever Roscoe Conkling and the Tammany machine needed, good ole “Chet” would provide.   Votes.   Favors. D...

Most men are honorable, sensitive and moral human beings.   That fact makes the transgressions of sexual aggressors more egregious.   They don’t have to behave that way.   It is not ingrained in their “maleness.”   They are sexual offenders because they choose to be. The Washington Post has, over the past month, published a series of articles on the hot topic of the fall: sexual harassment.   With charges against prominent men from every walk of life popping up like mushrooms on a pile of dung there is no question that sexual harassment has qualified for the “disease of the month” club. The irksome headlines seemed to pose questions that answer themselves. “Many men aren’t sure what sexual harassment is.”   They would if they were the recipients of the same.   Clue number one: if you would not do/say/behave in a certain way to a man, it is not appropriate for a woman.   Period. “Why doesn’t sexual harassment sensitivity training help?...