The beauty of imperfection — My curiosity peaked when I heard the term kintsugi, Japanese for “golden joinery.” Kintsugi is the practice of repairing broken pottery with a resin made with gold, silver, or platinum dust. The results are considered more beautiful than the unbroken item, and, over time, it became an art form. As…

And other official causes of death — During a recent conversation with a friend, the subject of the deaths in the past couple of years of Russian generals and oligarchs came up. Among those discussed were Anatoly Gerashchenko and Ravil Maganov, both Moscow billionaires who fell to their deaths under suspicious circumstances. While falling or being pushed…

And his name wasn’t Holiday — While watching the movie Tombstone the other day, I became curious about an unnamed character who was obviously of vital importance in “The Town Too Tough to Die.” Who, I wondered, patched up all the gunshot wounds of the lawmen and outlaws? In the gunfight at the OK corral, for…

A creative non-fiction story — For a Forensic Investigator, dead bodies are the job -the raison d’être. Any suspicious death, whether murder, suicide, or accident, becomes a Medical Examiner’s case. …

The dangers of a false reality — Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher and sociologist, once said that America was a country that has layered illusion upon illusion, moving away from reality at a rapid rate. He mentioned the growing influence of TV and the growth of Las Vegas and Disneyland as evidence of his premise of “Hyperreality.” …

Tea settings, flowers, fans, and laundry — In one of my earlier novels, the hero sits down with the villain Lo Ping, a Chinese warlord, over tea. Lo Ping had made sure the cups and teapot were of a specific pattern, color, and arrangement on the table. If the detective had inside knowledge of the secret society…

Observations on my 82nd year — My friend, Keewaydinoquay, was an Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) elder. Years ago, I had the opportunity to stay with her for a week at her encampment on Garden Island in northern Lake Michigan. I was one of about 30 visitors; friends, students, and apprentices. …

It worked in Ancient China — True Crime Here’s an interesting way of solving a crime I found in a book I’m reading: Crime and Punishment in Ancient China, by T’ang-Yin-Pi-Shih During the Ch’in Dynasty (350–394 CE), Tung Feng went off to study for the government examination, returning home three years later. Because of his absence…

One Too Many Questions — Curiosity got to me once again, and, like a novice lawyer, I had to ask just one more question. I read that quantum computers will be the next breakthrough in data processing, and I wondered, “What makes a quantum computer ‘quantum?’ ” That was my first question. The answer, from…