A brief history of health and medicine
By John Silveira
Issue #100 • July/August, 2006
As little as a century ago, the average life span in the United States was 49 years. Today it is 77. Fifty years ago, the average life span...
the gee-whiz! page: Animals, humans, extraterrestrials, and tools
By O. E. MacDougal
Issue #154 • July/August, 2015
There was a time when it was thought that a defining difference between humans and animals was: we use tools, they don't. But, in the last few...
The coming ice age
By John Silveira
Issue #139 • January/February, 2013
I'm putting my apocalyptic ice age novel, Danielle Kidnapped, on Amazon's Kindle and also producing a paperback version on Amazon's website. (See the ad on page 65.) The...
Stumbling over your own stupidity
By John Silveira
Issue #64 • July/August, 2000
There are several morals to be found in this story. You can find most of them yourself. But I'm only interested in one of them. The story was...
A lesson in respect
By John Silveira
Issue #65 • September/October, 2000
When I was 10, Dad lived on a farm in New Hampshire with my stepmother and two of my sisters, and I went to stay with them that...
The greatest American who was never President
By John Silveira
Issue #60a • November/December, 1999
"The election's next year, right?" I asked.
Dave Duffy, the publisher of Backwoods Home Magazine, was editing a rather lengthy article on water. I don't know if he didn't...
Three honest words: “I don’t know”
By John Silveira
Issue #63 • May/June, 2000
As we enter another political campaign season I'm reminded of my three favorite words: "I don't know."
Some years back, when I lived in southern California, I met the...
We don’t need no steenking 2nd Amendment
By John Silveira
Issue #58 • July/August, 1999
I usually get up to the magazine from southern California in plenty of time for the bimonthly deadline. Not this issue. I was late and way behind. But...
How big is the solar system?
By John Silveira
Issue #60 • November/December, 1999
In artists' renderings of the solar system we often see the sun represented by a small sphere with the planets drawn fairly close by. In truth, drawings like...
The chances of global disaster
By John Silveira
Issue #57 • May/June, 1999
We were preparing the current issue and the office hummed as it always does during deadline. Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine, explained to our new...
Why bureaucracy will likely destroy America
By John Silveira
Issue #50 • March/April, 1998
"Civilizations rise and fall," Dave said and I turned around to see if he was talking to me, but he was still staring at his monitor. I looked...
Do we need a Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights?
By John Silveira
Issue #53 • September/October, 1998
Once again there is a storm of complaints from American citizens concerning abuses and harassment on the part of a government agency. In the past the offending agencies...
Who were the best…and worst U.S. Presidents?
By John Silveira
Issue #49 • January/February, 1998
It was one of those days I love. We were between deadlines and Dave, Bill, Mac, and I had gone fishing on the lake. Dave, of course, is...
Science and truth. Are they related?
By John Silveira
Issue #46 • July/August, 1997
It was an argument about science. Dave and I were on one side, Dave's friends Tom and Bill, though curiously nonallied, were on the other. I say nonallied...
Losing our rights as we watch television
By John Silveira
Issue #44 • March/April, 1997
Dave's poker playing friend, O.E. MacDougal, came back. I don't know where he's been and he doesn't volunteer much in that regard. I'd heard he'd been playing a...
Want proof of luck, ESP, and psychic powers?
By John Silveira
Issue #40 • July/August, 1996
We were riding down the Pacific Coast Highway Mac, his girlfriend Carol, and I. Mac's the poker playing friend of Dave Duffy, the fellow who publishes this magazine....
