User:Other Choices

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." -- Rush, "Free Will"

I was originally drawn to wikipedia editing by the page on Gavin Menzies and his controversial books about China and the West. I realize that a lot of his reasoning and suppositions are sloppy and fanciful, but I also think that there is much of value in his books. We need to be careful to sort the wheat from the chaff, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath-water!

When I was a child, I was blessed to have two encyclopedias at home (World Book and Britannica), so I am very pleased to be able to make my little contributions to wikipedia.

I am an experienced genealogist, having traced each of my parents back to a Mayflower passenger (Richard Warren and Edward Doty). I share common ancestors with U.S. presidents Millard Fillmore, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush.

As a graduate student, I discovered the 1776 congressional definition of "happiness" (as used in the Declaration of Independence), which I discuss here and here (which aren't reliable sources, which is why you can't read about it at wikipedia).