by Jeff Drake | Oct 5, 2024 | Journal
A brief discussion of my attending a talk by Richard Dawkins.
by Jeff Drake | Jul 25, 2024 | Journal
In this post I describe the experience I had ingesting magic mushrooms for the first time in 50 years.
by Jeff Drake | Feb 4, 2024 | Journal
A memorial to my life-long friend, Tommy Johnson, from Duluth, Minnesota.
by Jeff Drake | Sep 29, 2023 | Journal
Wow, it’s been more than a month since my last blog post. I guess a lot has been going on, so I thought I’d drop this post just to share. As usual, Fall 2023 entered with what can only be …
by Jeff Drake | Aug 19, 2023 | Journal
They Don’t Necessarily Know What They Are Talking About! The following is another anecdote from my childhood This one has to do with the time I had a grade school teacher tell me a bald-faced lie, which I believed, and …
by Jeff Drake | Jul 28, 2023 | Journal
The Boy in the Window If you are anything like me, you probably have some occasional childhood memories that pop, unbidden, into your head from time-to-time. I don’t always know what triggers them. Some are mere snippets, like remembering playing...
by Jeff Drake | Dec 12, 2022 | Journal
The Dune Litany, Re-purposed! If you’re a Dune fan like me, you’ve read most of the books and watched the movies, old and new, perhaps more than once. I read four of the books before burning out and have seen...
by Jeff Drake | Nov 26, 2022 | Journal, Science
Are Religion and Science Incompatible? I say, “Yes! And Ne’er the Twain Will Meet!”[i] Some might read the title of this post and think, “That’s a bold statement, explain please!” Others might read it and think, “Bullshit! There’s no real reason science and religion...
by Jeff Drake | Aug 19, 2022 | Journal
The way my grandmother told it, is that she was at home in Duluth one day when she got a call from San Francisco. The woman on the phone told her that her daughter, Mary Ellen, had a baby boy …
by Jeff Drake | Aug 19, 2022 | Journal
Greetings! While I have been writing some about my passions, like philosophy, science and travel, I have been wanting to write about other things that are more personal, and sadly, I’ve been putting this off for years. Indecision sucks! But now I say” “Enough is...
by Jeff Drake | Aug 19, 2022 | Journal
"I have been working on my family history for over 30 years now. That’s a long time, and I’m forced to admit that at this point I’m somewhat tired of explaining to people how I came to have my mother’s maiden surname, Drake, instead of my father’s surname. I understand why folks want to know, so I don’t complain. Still, to avoid future confusion, I think I should explain it one more time. So, here goes."
by Jeff Drake | Aug 19, 2022 | Journal
I have a photo of me with my mother in the hospital where I was born. She looks happy. I’m feeding my face from a bottle. The photo looks so normal. Like a photo you would expect of a first-time mother. Not everything is always as it seems. Between the time this...
by Jeff Drake | Aug 19, 2022 | Journal
This is a beginning, I think. I imagine that I will be writing more about my mother, Mary Ellen Drake. There is just no way that I could ever tell you everything I know, remember, or heard about her in …
by Jeff Drake | Aug 17, 2022 | Journal
Q. Jeff, are you an atheist or an agnostic? Please explain. A. It might surprise those of you who know me that technically speaking, I am not an atheist. What do I mean by this? Well, the dictionary tells …
by Jeff Drake | Aug 17, 2022 | Journal
Please note: In 2010 I was invited to be a speaker at a wake in Indianapolis for one of the best friends I ever had, Jim Duff. I was honored to participate. Jim and I worked together for years while at Hewlett-Packard and then into retirement, leading teams of...
by Jeff Drake | Aug 17, 2022 | Journal
Well, I called Part 1 of my mother’s saga, And All Her Bearing Gracious, “a beginning,” and sadly, this looks like Part 2 will be the end. Why? For the simple reason that I believe I have gathered all …
by Jeff Drake | Jul 17, 2022 | Journal
This post is a copy of a paper I wrote as a freshman in college in 1972. Actually, it was typed on a typewriter. I’m pretty sure it was for Freshman English. In any event, it was fun to rediscover it and to see that it is just as relevant today as it was then....
by Jeff Drake | Jan 26, 2021 | Journal
When all the world is young, lad, And all the trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen; Then hey for boot and horse, lad, And round the world away! Young blood must have...
by Jeff Drake | Jul 4, 2018 | Journal
I recently exchanged emails with a friend about an idea that has been bouncing around in my mind – that if you are honest and seriously think about it, we are all alone in this world. No, I’m not feeling …
by Jeff Drake | Jul 22, 2017 | Journal
Let’s face it. Many of us have been here before. Your child has entered college and is figuring out what field of study they want to focus on for the next 4 years. So many subjects to choose! In your …
by Jeff Drake | Jul 19, 2017 | Journal
While searching through material I’ve written over the years, I came across one of my very first philosophy papers written in college. The title was, “To Believe Or Not To Believe” and had to do with my then-budding atheism. At …