Yelling as a man’s mode of control

Written by David Vogel Tuesday, 02 February 2010 19:49

I think it’s only fair, with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, that I divulge a secret that will help women better understand men.

I feel I am qualified to give this sort of information on the basis that I have been a male for well over 20 years. Or at least as far back as I can remember.

But at any rate, as a male, I’ve had the opportunity to sit with other males and observe their behavior in male-like settings doing male-like activities with male-like smells.

And the epiphany I had is so astonishing that if it doesn’t help all of you ladies out there better understand us men, then I will personally eat an entire pizza in one sitting by myself.

(In fact, now I hope this doesn’t help any of you. But I’m getting...

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High notes from a first opera show

Written by David Vogel Tuesday, 19 January 2010 19:36

In an opera, if characters get stabbed they don’t die. They just sing about it. For a very, very long time. I learned this last Friday when my dad and I went to Wichita to watch “Rigoletto.”

“Rigoletto” is a tragic opera about a rich man who has affairs with other women, and was written by Tiger Woods.

Whoops! Just kidding!

It was actually written in 1850 by Giuseppe Verdi.

Dad and I decided it would be fun to see “Rigoletto” after I sang a piece from the opera called “La donna è mobile” (or in English, “Woman is Fickle”) at a contest last October. (The late Luciano Pavarotti was famous for singing this number.)

This being the first opera I had ever attended, I was interested to see what the audience would be...

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Beach memories offer winter escape

Written by David Vogel Tuesday, 05 January 2010 19:48

As I was wading through a snow drift the other day, the thought suddenly occurred to me that it would be much more enjoyable to be traipsing through hot sand on a sunny beach.

I think this became most clear to me as I made one wrong step that sent a handful of snow right up my pant legs and consequently down into the sole of my shoe.

These past several weeks of freezing weather have inspired a lot of beach-themed fantasies for me. In fact, while walking into blustering, frozen winds, I was literally imagining that I was on a beach with cloudless, 90-degree weather.

It’s funny to think that five months ago I was imagining something quite opposite.

That’s because for a few days in August, I really was on a beach with cloudless...

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Don't ask about this year-end review

Written by David Vogel Tuesday, 29 December 2009 21:06

Ten years ago, there was a lot of talk about a little thing called the Y2K Bug. Remember?

Everyone thought the entire world would come to a grinding halt at the turn of the century due to this computer glitch. And so, when midnight struck, the world was completely shocked to see…. Nothing.

We’ve been through a lot in this first decade of the new millennium. But I think we’ve also been through a lot just in this past year. And because of this, we’ve learned a lot, too. (For example, the Nobel Prize committee has learned that it can apparently get away with handing out prizes for merely breathing.)

I have also learned a lot in 2009, and I’ve shared a lot of that new knowledge with you in this column. So let’s take a stroll...

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