When I was a kid, my parents cautioned me not to mess with stray dogs. They drilled into me that a stray-dog bite had to be remedied with 12, or was it 16, shots in the abdomen. This dreadful prospect ingrained a lifelong fear of dogs, of any kind, in me. Ironically, I ended up […]
Vegetable Gardening 101
I caught the gardening bug when I helped tend the family vegetable garden during my early teenage years. The bug never left me; for the past 20 years, I have enjoyed cultivating a 350-square-foot vegetable patch. Vegetable gardening has for long had an uncool image. However, topical issues such as sustainability, climate change, and organic […]
Isolate Russia at Your Peril
Many of us have a favorable perception of Russian vodka. And of Swiss chocolates, French wines, and the like. We often believe some specific product (vodka) is likely of good quality if it originates from a particular country (Russia). We also hold broad-based country-of-origin quality beliefs. For instance, I respond very favorably to “Made in […]