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Author Archives: paulefallon
Abby Joins the Peace Corps
Nearly forty years ago, as a Bachelor of Civil Engineering seeking a 180-degree break from academia before pursuing graduate school, I applied to ACTION, the 1970’s-era aggregation of government service efforts that included the Peace Corps, VISTA, and a smattering … Continue reading
The Costco Workout
Being late the party, what can I say about my first trip to Costco that has not already been said? The bargains are good, the quantities obscene, and the clientele value-driven. It’s only been a few years since I ventured … Continue reading
1000 Bikram Yoga Classes
Today I hit a milestone – 1000 Bikram yoga classes. The date corresponded with completing exactly four years of practice, an average of 250 classes per year. I wasn’t counting until one day the owner Jill told me I was … Continue reading
Rumblings of Revolution
In 1977 I spent beautiful spring afternoons in an overheated classroom with a view of a trash compactor in MIT’s nondescript Building 12 snoozing through Urban Sociology, the last of my Humanities requirements and perhaps the most boring course ever … Continue reading
Same Little Boy – All Grown up
The ENR McGraw-Hill 2013 Best Global Projects Awards was well organized, like most social events orchestrated by engineers. Dinner prompt at 6:30; alphabetically ordered project descriptions at 7:30. Winning teams paraded to the platform in business suits; there was only … Continue reading
Fifty Years On – Can We Recapture the Spirit of Peace?
Fifty years ago today President John F. Kennedy gave the commencement address at AmericanUniversity that announced steps towards peace with the Soviet Union. Although the speech lacks a singular punch line such as ‘Ask not what your country can do, … Continue reading
Be Like Brit Dines Among the Big Boys
Last night Be Like Brit orphanage in Haiti won the McGraw-Hill / Engineering News Record 2013 Best Global Project Award for Residential / Hospitality projects. We were honored along with two other community-based efforts in the developing world: the El … Continue reading
The Queen of Versailles
My definition of a good movie is – do I wake up thinking about it the next morning? According to this criterion, Queen of Versailles is one of the best movies ever made because I can’t get it out of … Continue reading
Tough Yoga
The line between success and failure can be fine, but once we trip over it, we cannot always raise ourselves to the other side. I knew an evening class would be grueling, but I thought it doable. I had been … Continue reading
Fly China
On a short trip to China – I was gone just a week – the proportion of time on a plane is great, but it is as revealing a place to find cultural differences as anywhere. There are no boarding … Continue reading
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