In Lake Wobegone Days, humorist Garrison Keillor tells of a retired dentist in a little Minnesota town.  He sits in a fishing boat much of theday.  "Open wide," Dr. Nute says to the fish.  "This may sting a little bit.  Okay.  Now bite down."  Unfortunately, not all retired persons are so easily able to continue their once interesting professions in some form, as Dr. Nute has.  Retirees have a high death rate within the first six months after retirement, apparently because of boredom, and psychologists suggest three ways to prevent it.

When Jonathan Swift described Gulliver's trip to the land of Laputa in Gulliver's Travels, Swift depicted scientists who had one eye turned inward and the other aimed at the stars.  In the case of two high school science teachers I had had at this school, life imitates Swift's art.  The school district should require all teachers, especially those in science, to have an interest in students as well as expertise and curiosity.

The young man with the hammer hoisted himself onto the top of the wall.  All around him on the wall and on the ground, people chanted and cheered.  The young man knelt down, with his hammer, and began to chip at the cold, gray concrete.  Little by little, the wall began to crumble.  As I watched in amazement, it was hard to comprehend the fact that I was watching the Berlin Wall coming down.