I’m Mildly Insightful… What Do You Do?

There is a term in communication theory known as phatic communication, coined by Roman Jakobson (and I only mention his name because it looks good in search engines). Basically this is any word or phrase meant to initiate communication or keep channels open. Less academically speaking, any pointless speech to get the ball rolling. Simply…

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A Cookie Question

Dear Mr. Eccentric Me and some of my Navy buddies noticed something the other day. Major brand cookies, like Oreos for example, seem taste different from season to season, even pack to pack – like hard cream and crumbly cookies one day and gooey cream and rock hard cookies the next. Are we imagining things…

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R.I.P. Ray Macula

The official place for the memorial page is here now. -7/24/06 I just found out that my best friend is dead. I hadn’t heard anything from him in over a month. Normally that wouldn’t have seemed odd since he moved to the middle of Wyoming. However, lately he’d been on instant messenger talking a blue…

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In Need of a Quack

Dear Mr. Eccentric, I am a 14-year-old wreck. I am obese and eat way too much, play too many video games, stay up way past midnight, ditch classes and sleep with all sorts of people. I know its bad the lifestyle I lead, but it’s hard for me to stop. I went to my parents…

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It’s Plane to See

Dear Mr. Eccentric Sir, you’ve got to help me. Right now I’m on a airplane headed to Australia. We left from Newark NJ and the captain said we’re currently just over Redding, PA. The problem is the child in the seat behind me has already begun the whole kicking the back of my seat thing…

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Which Way to Oxford?

Dear Mr. Eccentric, I’m a bachelor, 30 years of age, living in Burbank California. My nephew from a brother I’ve not spoken with for a good 12 years (out of his own volition) has phoned me. He’s 18 and wants to stay with me a while whilst searching out Californian colleges. Yes, he’s blood, but…

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