"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
Just home from scouting trail for an upcoming bicycle hash. As I pedaled I listened to NPR through earbuds … well, mostly: when Will Shortz came on with his weekly Puzzler segment, I switched to the local alternative FM station, KXCI. I’ve had the urge to change stations during the Puzzler before, but this is […]
“The man who said ‘I’d rather be lucky than good’ saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It’s scary to think so much is out of one’s control. There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. I’m starting with an essay on censorship by Chris Crutcher. Crutcher, an author whose books are frequently challenged and banned from school libraries and reading lists, is coming around to the same conclusion I’ve drawn: that parental book challenges are […]
“Young Lamar Jimmerson went to France in 1917 with the American Expeditionary Forces, serving first with the Balloon Section, stumbling about in open fields holding one end of a long rope, and then later as a telephone switchboard operator at AEF headquarters in Chaumont. It was there on the banks of the Marne River that […]
The camera in my cell phone, the one that always takes such blurry photos, has given up the ghost. Well, not entirely … if you take the back of the phone off, remove the battery, then remove and reinsert the SIM card, it’ll take one or two photos before failing again. Using a cell phone […]
Just heard NPR Morning Edition correspondent Steve Inskeep cut Rep. Barney Frank off in mid-sentence (audio link here). Inskeep says (at 4:13 on the tape) “the biggest part of the federal budget is entitlements.” Frank says “No, wrong, I’m sorry, the defense budget is bigger than Medicare, and Social Security is in fact self-financing, and […]
Yo, Wall Street, Sincerely, Paul
In a previous post I mentioned our upcoming Saturday night date: dinner at a National Rifle Association auction. I wanted to wear my ACLU member pin but couldn’t find it. I did my homework, though, and was prepared to argue the case for protecting all ten amendments in the Bill of Rights, not just the […]