This burning question has been puzzling philosophers, scientists, theologians and song lyricists for decades.
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?
In these virulently partisan times, the answer shall likely have to wait for the Supreme Court to weigh in. Meanwhile, I've got several more thoughts attached to question marks.
Does anybody else feel like I do that after his racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and misogynistic diatribes, it's just impossible to enjoy any of Mel Gibson's rather excellent movies?
For that matter, doesn't the same go for the work of admitted rapist and pedophile Roman Polanski, a movie director who is free to spend the rest of his sordid life frolicking as long as it's not in the United States?
While I'm at it, can anyone explain the adoration still exhibited toward the late Michael Jackson despite his paying millions of dollars to little boys presumably so they wouldn't testify about what he did with them while they shared a bed?
What _ or who _ is a Lady Gaga?
Is there a Lord Gaga?
Are there any scientists more brilliant than those in the employ of the Gillette company that charges so much for its Fusion razors?
How they can create blades that give you a wonderfully smooth first shave and still self-destruct so quickly that your fifth shave feels like you're using sandpaper is a feat so technologically impressive that you wish these guys were working for NASA.
I know he has a huge following, but how can all those Republican senators, governors and other serious men and women continue to bow and scrape to radio blowhard Rush
Limbaugh, particularly after the racist stuff he said about George Steinbrenner on the day he died?
"That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires," Limbaugh said Tuesday on his show. "He fired a bunch of white guys as managers left and right."
We can only speculate why skin color entered into the guy's thought processes right after the Yankees' owner died, but isn't it most likely that it was just because Rush Limbaugh happens to be a racist?
I can understand taking in your kid's games at the park, but why would anyone watch a pro soccer match on TV if there is a baseball game on at the same time?
Did you notice that once the American soccer team lost to mighty Ghana in the World Cup that wherever you went around here, nobody was talking about soccer?
All the ESPN horses and all NIKE's men and promotions couldn't put any of the trumped-up interest in the soccer tournament back together again once the Americans were out of it.
So, no, despite the millions of kids who play the sport and its improved but still-paltry TV ratings, professional soccer in this country can go back to the obscurity it deserves until the next World Cup in four years.
Need any more proof that most Americans watch an international sport more out of patriotism than anything else?
OK, who's leading the Tour de France bicycle race now that Texan Lance Armstrong has faded away?
I don't know, either.
How much time do you think President Barack Obama spends praying that Sarah Palin is the Republican nominee in 2012?
Can you watch a network baseball game without giggling when the announcers postulate on why there are fewer home runs than there used to be ... and the subject of steroids never comes up?
Why are the Drudge Report, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe and other right-wing deniers of the overwhelming evidence of global warming so silent when it's 90-plus degrees up and down the East Coast?
Of course, it's just as ridiculous to use a hot July day in only one part of the planet as proof of global warming as when Drudge and Inhofe use every February blizzard as evidence that there's no such thing.
Hey, it's hot in the summer and cold in the winter, proving absolutely nothing other than that.
Meanwhile, worldwide, 2000-09 was the warmest decade in recorded history.
What do I have to say to all those critics who predicted newspapers would be long gone by now?
We'll be around as long as there are folks who want a credible source for local news and reliable material for wrapping fish.
While the critics' gum is on the bedpost, they can chew on that for a while.
Sam Pollak is the editor of The Daily Star. He can be reached at spollak@thedailystar.com or at (607) 432-1000, ext. 208.
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Chewing on current events can be a sticky situation
- Big Chuck D'Imperio
- Cary Brunswick
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What books would you recommend for a young reader?
What then, would be on that short list of books you might pass along to young people to help them prepare for life, and how do you decide which titles to include and which to omit?
Continued ... - Some wisdom is best passed down through books
- Let pragmatism, not politics, determine birth control debate
- As Center Street Elementary goes, so goes Center City
- U.S. intervention in Syria's uprising would be a gamble
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- Chuck Pinkey
- Guest Column
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
In Otsego County’s local elections last fall, a number of candidates — most of them on the independent Sustainable Otsego line — ran on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability platform. They recognized that our current way of life — dependent on increasingly scarce, costly and polluting fossil fuels — cannot continue.
Continued ... - Time to get off the bus and on the computer
- Cuomo's Machiavellian maneuvers are a danger
- Home rule laws aren't a radical idea
- Sustainable shouldn't be a dirty word
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If we don’t develop a sustainable system, who will?
- Lisa Miller
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
I am sitting cross-legged on the floor in the dressing room, waiting for Allie's dance number to be called. The cave girl costume has been donned, the jazz shoes double-tied, the hair pulled back, the requisite dab of lipstick applied.
Continued ... - Healthy doesn't have to mean expensive
- A family era ends with close of Potter series
- Independent stores make up for loss of Borders
- Untethered from the cable box
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Being a parent is a constant learning process
- Mark Simonson
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A Main Street facelift for Oneonta in the 1920s
It has been just a little over 30 years, 1980 in fact, that Main Street in Oneonta went through a major transformation in appearance. Even now I'll hear mixed comments about the changes, which included antique style lamps, trees, planters and brick trim. Some liked the changes while others liked the wider street with the even-sized sidewalks.
Continued ... - Perfect attendance by Saturday’s Bread for 20 years in Oneonta
- Recalling the Hindenburg, John D. Rockefeller in May 1937
- Oneonta residents had diversions aplenty in the spring of 1952
- Damaschke essential to ensuring Oneonta baseball in 1927
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A Main Street facelift for Oneonta in the 1920s
- Rick Brockway
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It’s easy to get hooked on Thirteenth Lake
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... With Memorial Day almost upon us, I was reminded of a great fishing adventure many years ago on this weekend.
- Climbing is one thing, but skydiving?
- Rattlesnakes may be closer than you think, so pay attention
- Spring is here, so fishing should pick up soon
- Sneaky fox may be the next animal looking to horse around
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It’s easy to get hooked on Thirteenth Lake
- Sam Pollak
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I'm happy with our kids to a certain degree
It was several years ago, and I was in the kitchen, telling my eldest daughter and my then-teenaged son about the person who was taking over as publisher at The Daily Star.
Continued ... - I get by with a little help from my 'friends'
- It’s not easy for a politics junkie to get off the stuff
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica in print, unmourned by me
- Angelo Dundee was always a good man to have in your corner
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- William Masters
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
Richard Lugar, after six terms as a Republican senator -- known for his middle of the road rationality and his foreign policy finesse -- has been ousted by a Tea Party extremist backed by outside right-wing funding.
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War not worth gambling with lives of soldiers
Are you not tired of our war in Afghanistan? It had a point, once, after 9/11. Bush couldn't distinguish his myopic personal agendas from the nation's needs and let Osama escape, dropping the ball entirely, causing many deaths.
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Titanic was a microcosm of U.S. economic disparity
Haunting reminders of the Titanic tragedy have wafted over us with the centenary of its sinking. The maiden voyage of an impressive, state of the art vessel, was a little like that of the Challenger space shuttle, at the cutting edge of developing technology. But the shuttle carried our pride in science and space exploration, not hundreds and hundreds of people.
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William Masters: Nation stands divided between 'us' and 'them'
In February, Trayvon Martin was shot dead as "suspicious" by a volunteer neighborhood watch man. The case has aroused community reaction in Sanford, Fla., and is still echoing across the country.
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A quarterback can't win the game alone
What is the relationship between democracy and wealth? Democracy is a political system, while wealth relates to economics. We have equal political rights, but we don't all have money. Extreme differences destroy the continuity of community solidarity.
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Time for lawmakers who put needs of society first
