"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
We’re clearing out the home office prior to repainting and reflooring it. Besides my desk, there’s an L-shaped wall unit consisting of desk, shelves, file drawers, and the Murphy bed we use for overflow guests. It needs to come out, but we don’t have to do it … our insurance is paying a contractor to disassemble and remove it, then put it […]
Here’s a project I’ve been working on the past few days, an interview with aviation blogger Joe Coles, publisher of Hush Kit, “the alternative aviation magazine.” Joe ran across one of my Air-Minded blog posts and contacted me. I agreed to answer interview questions via email. Happily, his questions were well-informed and provocative, not the […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCTR! News From a “love letter” to librarians: I imagine librarians are also working on their Banned Books displays now. Banned Books Week is set for Sept. 24-30, celebrating our freedom to read and to seek and express ideas. My […]
Home-grown hostility toward immigrants goes back a long way. That hostility has been directed toward Southern and Eastern Europeans, Jews in general, Asians and Africans in particular, and most lately Mexicans and Central Americans. I’m going to focus on the latter in light of yesterday’s announcement about ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or […]
I don’t know how many readers look at older posts here at Paul’s Thing, but if you do you might have noticed most of the photos are gone. The graphics and photos I use here link to originals stored on Flickr. Three days ago I tried to upload new photos: my account had vanished, along […]
We have an old tri-motor freighter at Pima Air & Space Museum. It’s a YC-125 Raider, one of 23 built by Northrop for the US Air Force, which flew the type from 1950 to 1955. After they were declared surplus, most were purchased by bush operators in South America, Central America, and Mexico. Ours flew […]
English has a lot of synonyms for “fool” or “idiot.” Perhaps you take this to mean that English speakers are mean-spirited; I simply reply that necessity is the mother of invention. —Kory Stamper, Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper Without naming the […]
With Hurricane Harvey due to strike a heavily-populated part of the Texas Gulf Coast later tonight, potentially dumping rain that will be measured in feet, not inches, it’ll be interesting to see what manner of leadership this White House is capable of. Has it struck anyone else that while Trump constantly lays into the New York […]