Wrist Action
Are you wearing a wrist watch right now? It's almost certainly an electronic watch; quartz movement; maybe digital or maybe analog. It's incredibly accurate and unless you prefer to spend thousands on a wrist watch, incredibly cheap.
Written archives
Articles, essays and columns by Ralph Bennett. Search by any word in an article, or narrow the list by publication, year or topic.
30 articles, page 1 of 2
Technology on Top- Appreciating the Luxury Learning Curve
As the International Auto Show opens in Detroit this week, the growing number of "retractable hardtop" convertibles on display is a reminder of how, every once in a while, technology sort of catches up with itself in an interesting way.…
Dreaming of a Remote Christmas
One Saturday, about a month before Christmas 50 years ago, I was with my Uncle George in a department store in Pittsburgh, Pa. The whole family was Christmas shopping here and there, but George and I happened to be walking…
Highway to Heaven
As you prepare to head out to join with family and friends for that Thanksgiving turkey, give thanks right now for one of the most magnificent engineering feats of all time.
Tennis With Milton
It was in the long ago, when I was an editor for The Reader's Digest that I chanced to be a panelist for some conference at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, Calif. I can't for the life of…
What Did Mr. Murtha Mean
Cong. "Jack" Murtha is a sort of local legend here in Western Pennsylvania.
Goodbye, Jelly Bean
Sometime this week, probably Friday, the last Ford Taurus will be built at the Ford Motor Co.'s Hapeville, Ga., assembly plant.
Roadside Bombs- The Hydra Effect
Here is why we are not going to "win" the war against roadside bombs like the three that killed six American soldiers in and around Baghdad last weekend and have continued to take a steady toll throughout the Iraq conflict.
Maybe Now We'll Get It
Maybe, as this terrible business in Lebanon unfolds, we'll finally get it:
More Than Hezbollah Can Chew
The Israeli dismantling of Iran's expeditionary force in Lebanon -- Hezbollah -- began in earnest over the weekend.
Happy Gathering
As usual we'll gather at Conneaut Lake, up in northwestern Pennsylvania, as we have, some of us, for forty years or more.
Who Killed the Electric Car
It's the Frankenstein's monster of automobiledom. No, no, it's the Orphan Annie of automobiledom -- eternally singing "Tomorrow! Tomorrow!"
Routine Evil
There was an awful inevitability to what happened to those two American soldiers.
Gangland Slaying
Ahmed Fadhil Nazzal al-Khalayleh was a murderous Jordanian thug who might have died relatively unknown. But the sullen, quick tempered, semi-literate gangster, thought by some in his own hometown to be a dangerous half-wit, had "found religion" as the expression…
Courage in Profiles
As the story unfolds of the arrest of 17 suspected Islamic terrorists and the seizure of a huge cache of explosive materials, Canadians, Americans, and free men everywhere can be thankful that the Canadian police and intelligence services had the…
Go and Find a Soldier's Grave
It shouldn't be too hard. If you're not near a military cemetery, just about any cemetery will do.
Long Shot
If you don't recognize the name of the guy who imparted that little bit of baseball wisdom, listen up. He was a journeyman among journeymen and it's been 50 years since he had his hour -- or, more precisely, his…
Glovology
That piece of doggerel was written by one of the men who organized what is thought to be the first professional baseball club, the Cincinnati Redstockings, back in the late 1860s. It expresses a certain contempt for the impedimenta of…
Marines Notice Things
Hardened by the bitter experience of ambushes, roadside bombs and snipers, Marines on patrol in Iraq notice things.
Confronting 'He Who Confronts'
If I may paraphrase the late Richard Pryor. That Saddam. He BAD.