Can you guess something, according to recent studies, that most of us have been doing quite more than usual in this era of social distancing? Eating? That's probably true, but it isn't what I'm alluding to. The same goes for using Facebook and binge-watching shows on Netflix. While these may certainly apply, I'm talking about something we hardly report doing, at least in normal times. Give up? I speak of dreaming,  whereby a series of ideas, emotions, images, and sensations occur involuntarily in the mind during the REM phase of sleep. Sometimes the dreams are positive, sometimes they're negative, and sometimes they make absolutely no sense -- and that's if we can remember them vividly enough to make such a characterization once we wake up! As it turns out, the stress and anxiety precipitated by the pandemic are behind this high incidence of dreaming, not to mention an increased prevalence of insomnia. We use dreams to cope with intense emotions,...

I'm happy to say I achieved two feats over the last week: (1) I visited New York City for the first time in my life! You're probably asking, "What took you so long, dude?" Well, I'd never been big on traveling until now, not to mention the fact that my wife and I chose to save up for a while in order to have the wherewithal to go on these trips. (Much like our trip to Boston last summer, vacationing in the Big Apple costs a pretty penny.) What's more, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I morphed into the biggest history nerd on the planet. Now I have a valid excuse to explore historic cities big and small, from New York City to Washington D.C. Museums, anyone? (2) Just as my plane was landing in New York, I finished reading Ron Chernow's behemoth 730-page biography Alexander Hamilton , which inspired the hit Broadway musical .  It was fitting that I completed the book when I did, for Alexander Hamilton, immigrant-turned-Founding-Father a...

Today we remember the thousands of innocent lives lost on September 11, 2001, when a group of cowards hijacked four passenger airliners and perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The four coordinated terrorist attacks killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others, with civilians, firefighters, and law enforcement officers among them. A few days ago, I came across a YouTube video that made me sick to my stomach. It contained audio of separate calls made to 911 by two people who died in the 9/11 attacks -- Kevin Cosgrove and Melissa Doi. You can sense the hopelessness in their voice as both distressed individuals exhort 911 dispatchers on the line to rescue them. Cosgrove states that he's "too young to die," and Doi seems resigned to her fate, somberly declaring, "I'm going to die." I can't imagine what they were feeling as the grim reality that they were in the final moments of their lives began to set in. It's hard to belie...

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Paris yesterday that left at least 128 people dead and roughly 200 wounded. As President Obama stated last night, the United States stands firmly with France just as the European country supported the U.S. after 9/11. The scale of the horror is just unfathomable. Several terrorists, eight of which are confirmed dead, unleashed a series of coordinated attacks in six sites throughout the city that included the Bataclan Concert Hall and the Stade de France. Per reports, the militants wore explosive belts and carried machine guns. It's hard to believe that people in the world could carry out such evil, despicable acts in the name of their religion. How can one claim that their God "tells" them to unleash so much carnage and bloodshed on humanity? ISIS doesn't know what's coming to them. France's retribution will be merciless, I'm sure, and the U.S.-led coalition waging war against ISIS (which inc...