John Cafarella

The Man With Three Arms and Other Stories is a collection of essays written over the years. I think about things, I write about them. Things happens to me as I've always been at war with inanimate objects.

These are essays on life, music, ideas, holidays, science, and travel. Some have been published in our local newspaper, The Village View, and now as a (growing) collection in book form,

I'm not sure when the southland gave birth to the Blues but in 1985 came the birth of the Gnus. As a science education (and occasionally mathematics) supervisor I began writing and editing Science Gnus, which originated as a one page monthly newsletter for teachers to encourage science education. It eventually grew into a multi-page newsletter and travelled with me to several school districts. It then evolved into a website filled with facts, quotes, trivia and occasional shameless puns.

I thought of the Gnus as having the potential to be a book and began writing. In 1999, Dr. Lawrence Lowery, a brilliant scientist, author and teacher, a colleague and a friend, said to me "Why just one book? Why not 12? One for each month" and so 20 years and 12 books were added to the endeavor.

The Science Gnus then morphed into the Gnus Almanac as History, Mathematics, Literature, Music and the Arts joined in the fun.

I’ve been at it ever since, taking inspiration from Erasmus, the Renaissance Humanist, who took decades working on and adding to his Adagia. Since the Gnus encompasses events of the last 2,000 years, I wanted to name the books Remembrance of Things Past but unfortunately, Marcel Proust already took that one.