Category Archive: Uncategorized

The Brookfield Zoo at Night, and a Little Mayan Food, Make the Holidays Bright

We started with The Joeffrey Ballet’s, The Nutcracker, with two-year-old Bradaigh.  Two years later, we added Emma. Each […]

The Value of Zilch

Maybe it’s because of all those Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales ads. Or Cyber-Monday e-mails for 70% off all my purchases. Maybe it’s just my long commute and plenty of time to let my mind wander. Maybe my friend Bob is right, I have a mind stuck in beta wave mode. Anyways, I’ve been pondering zero lately. Yes, zero, as in 0, nothing, zed, nil, nada, zilch. Without zero, our lives would be sooo different. No 70% discount for one thing.

Counting seems natural. We must keep track of things: children, sheep, shoes, pennies, friends, enemies… If I have none of those, well, life is simple; nothing to keep track of, nothing to count. Counting starts with 1, not 0. We take zero for granted, but it wasn’t always so, especially in the western world. Stop and think a moment about trying to calculate that 70% sale using Roman numerals. Next to impossible. Wait, not next to. Impossible.

Zero, nil, evil by ancient Greeks and Romans considered the void evil.   

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The Incovenience of All This Convenience

I went to Costa Rica by accident. I mean, I knew nothing about Costa Rica, or why I wanted to go there. That was in 1992. A couple of years later I was in Africa, then the Yucatán Peninsula, and after that, a riverboat on the Amazon.  I became a traveler well-after I became a mother of teens.  How did I get so adventurous? How did I discover irresistible deals? Elizabeth.

I met Elizabeth at Riverside Plaza, the same building I met Cathy, my “redeployment specialist.” Cathy was there to cheer-lead me to a new career, and reassure me of my value. Elizabeth sent me off on my first international travel.

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