Sam Barry's Blog, page 14
February 1, 2010
The Daily Sam: Them!
San Francisco, February 1 — While America slept, complacent in our belief that we were safe, the enemy returned to our land.At first we did not want to believe it was true. We saw the shadows in our windows, heard the flapping of wings, but unable to face the truth, we continued on in our happy-go-lucky frame of mind.However, our denial of the facts does not make their presence any less real. ...
January 28, 2010
The Daily Sam: Is the iPad the Most Important Invention Ever?
First there was language. Than there was agriculture. Then there was toilet paper. And now there is the iPad.Introduced yesterday at Apple headquarters by Steve Jobs, Leonard Nimoy, and the Dalai Lama, the iPad presents humanity with a choice: do we stay in the forest, hanging from the limbs of trees and throwing fruit on the animals down below and laughing, or do we climb down, stand upright, ...
January 25, 2010
The Daily Sam: Our Promise to You
We here at the Daily Sam have been advised by our Board of Directors—which consists of anyone who will listen to us for longer than two minutes—to post new editions of the Daily Sam blog on a regularly-scheduled basis. As a result we have decided that going forward the Daily Sam will be published every Monday and Thursday, unless we have a good excuse.(I like saying "going forward." ...
January 22, 2010
National Time Out Day
I am weary of listening to people bicker. I am tired of being exposed to the infighting of the famous, infamous, and the powerful. I feel like I am being drenched in spittle daily as television and movie producers and stars and claw at each other. Family tragedies are served up as entertainment without regard to anyone's privacy or our collective dignity. Meanwhile, our ruling elite bicker ...
January 18, 2010
The Daily Sam: Football—it's Just a Game
To be a football fan is to suffer from a mild form of insanity, and the United States is clearly nuts. I have lived many places, but nowhere did I learn more about the craziness of American football fandom than when I was the pastor of Florence Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, a city where it really pays to watch the Weather Channel. On the Sunday I arrived at the church one of the first ...
January 13, 2010
The Daily Sam: Salt of the Earth
The other day at the work lunch table I learned, once again, that I am a complete moron when it comes to food. This wasn't much of a revelation, as I can only cook three things: tacos, spaghetti, and tuna salad sandwiches. My idea of an interesting restaurant is one that serves one of these three food groups, and I have been ordering the same dishes at Italian and Chinese restaurants for ...
January 8, 2010
The Daily Sam: San Francisco's Missing Sea Lions
The loveable sea lions who lived at Pier 39 in San Francisco are gone. After twenty years hanging out on the wooden docks, smoking cigarettes, harassing people for spare change, and wolf-whistling at passing women, they suddenly disappeared. They followed their leader, Marlon Brando, and rode off into the sunset on their motorcycles, sporting really cool leather hats, jackets, and sunglasses.Of ...
January 4, 2010
The Daily Sam News Alert: Too Much Information
According to the cleverly-named Global Information Industry Center at San Diego University, Americans are being bombarded with new information. Sponsored by the Alfred "Punky" Sloan Foundation, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel, LSI, Oracle, and Seagate—all organizations that are deeply concerned about our individual welfare—the How Much Information (HMI) research study set out to make us look ...
The Daily Sam News Alert: Americans Bombarded with Information
According to the cleverly-named Global Information Industry Center at San Diego University, Americans are being bombarded with new information. Sponsored by the Alfred "Punky" Sloan Foundation, AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel, LSI, Oracle, and Seagate—all organizations that are deeply concerned about our individual welfare—the How Much Information (HMI) research study set out to make us look ...
December 31, 2009
The Daily Sam: A New Year's Resolution
In this coming year I resolve not to be selfish, dishonest, and driven by fear and anger. What do you think are my chances?At this time of year it is customary to make resolutions to change our lives in small and big ways. We perform this same exercise throughout the year, making resolutions to study harder when we get a bad report card; to quit as we put out our "last" cigarette; to stop ...
