Last day of November, so I guess that mean’s ski season is just around the corner. I grew up skiing a few days a year (usually on one outing to the Poconos or the Berkshires or occasionally Vermont). Now that our family lives so much closer to ski resorts, I have been taking my children much more often, and at least one of them is starting to get the hang of it. Now, for some thoughts about skiing: 1. WEAR A HELMET. When I was growing up, virtually no one wore helmets when t

Let’s talk about chess. Why, you may ask? Well, on a personal note, my oldest child (and to a lesser extent, my younger two) have become very interested in playing chess over the past couple of years, and have participated in a whole variety of chess tournaments (which incidentally, can be torturously boring for the parents) (consider yourselves warned). But on the upshot, it seems there are lots of educational and developmental benefits to kids when they play chess. Check ou

Continuing in our Thanksgiving theme, let’s talk about cranberries. There is a strong local crop of cranberries (see blog post from earlier this month) and their peak harvest time is this month, so you are likely to find lots of local cranberry options available. How do cranberries stack up as a health food? Pretty well in fact. It turns out they have lots of anti-oxidants, which are chemicals that help treat oxidation processes inside you. What does that even mean? Well, as

One week away from Thanksgiving, so let’s talk about turkey. First, true confessions: I do not actually like eating turkey. I don’t like its taste, or the texture, or even the smell to be honest. STUFFING, on the other hand. Sweet potato pie. Cranberry sauce. Pumpkin everything. These are all the foods I can eat forever. But what about the turkey? Is it true that it makes you tired? More or less tired than other foods you might eat? Well, turkeys do contain the amino acid try

As you may have noticed, we changed the clocks this past weekend, and so now it is starting to really feel like winter is coming. Personally, I like this clock change, at least in the mornings, because for most of the year I am a morning person, except when it starts to be SO. DARK. EVERY. MORNING. like it has been for the past couple of weeks. As you may have heard, though, Massachusetts is considering ditching daylight savings time and joining the Atlantic Time Zone, offici

Alright readers, I am going to take a moment to write on a serious topic: the death of my PhD advisor and mentor, Professor Ronald Breslow. There are no shortage of descriptors, obituaries, and articles about Professor Breslow on the internet for you to read as you see fit. I would recommend in particular: 1. Chemical and Engineering News: https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/web/2017/10/Ronald-Breslow-dies-86.html 2. The New York Times: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/ob