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The Wrong Answer During the second and final presidential debate, this happened: In the following days, I saw a lot of friends posting to Facebook. They were saying things like, “Hi, everyone. I don’t get on here a lot. And lord knows I don’t like talking about politics. But last night in…

Editor’s note: this was originally posted via email on Sunday, September 8. If you’re sad that was so long ago, you should sign up to get these in your inbox when they’re fresh. Okay, first, I hope you’re proud of yourself. Because of you, I’ve now done this five times…

Editor’s note: this was originally posted via email on Monday, September 2. If you’re sad that was so long ago, you should sign up to get these in your inbox when they’re fresh. Today is Monday, but it’s a holiday, so it counts as a Sunday. …

On Saturday, my mother turned 65. As is typical for 65-year-old women, she wanted to go sky diving. So we spent the weekend with her in a rented house on the beach south of Galveston. And she jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, as they say. Despite clouds and…

There’s nothing like a two-week break after the first issue to really get your audience excited for regular content, or so I’ve heard. I went on vacation to the startlingly awesome and surprisingly unknown white sand beaches, aqua-marine surf, and 75° August days of the eastern shores of Lake Michigan…

(Startlingly Awesome and Refreshingly Modest #1) — Well, hello. I hope you’re having a really amazing Monday. This is the first issue of Startlingly Awesome and Refreshingly Modest, which is an email newsletter with a super-witty name that you’re now subscribed to. …

My friend Gregg once visited a pizza joint in Syracuse, New York called Robbie T’s. It changed his life. Apparently Mr. T (no relation) is very, very excited about serving pizza to his customers. Abnormally excited. Drastically excited. You walk in to pick up a pizza. He looks up from…

The folks in the Denver office at Inntopia have named a plant after me. Now as several people have pointed out, it’s very possible that this is a coincidence and the plant is named Donnie because of some other reason. I refuse to look into it and will remain verklempt for the rest of the day. Some people might call this egotism. I call it optimism.