You know that famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” where the people inside the restaurant by the gas station are just beginning to understand that the birds have got a mean streak? It’s an amazing piece of screenwriting that makes me think of tax holidays in America. In that scene in “The Birds,” one woman, i.e. the expert, has been insisting that birds of different species don’t have the social network to work together to act aggressively against people. Another insists… Read more

Jan. 2010 – One reason that a road trip in Europe is such a wondrous experience is that over relatively short distances one encounter different regions, cultures, histories, accents/languages, and cuisines. Over equal distances, those differences are naturally less remarkable in the U.S. due to a briefer, more uniform history, a common language, and the ease with which citizens move and immigrants arrive. Furthermore, we tend to approach American regions from the air rather than from… Read more