"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Consider the great gains we’ve made in this country: from universal suffrage to civil rights, from labor unions and protections for workers to minimum wages and unemployment insurance, from Social Security to Medicare, from free public education to womens’ athletics, from good highways to the postal system. If you follow the news you know that […]
My computer’s back from the shop, and what a pleasure it is to work on it again. Yesterday I typed a post on the other computer at Donna’s desk, where everything is six inches lower. I couldn’t get through a single sentence without making multiple typos. It didn’t help that she has her keyboard on […]
First of all, I apologize for the blogging slowdown. Over the weekend the fan in the back of my CPR started howling; Monday I took it into the shop to have a new one installed. They’re running behind and I may not have my computer back for a few days yet. I’m posting this from […]
Recently I cross-posted a few blog entries to Daily Kos, where they are read by many more people than when they first appear at Paul’s Thing. Lately, though, things have been hopping here, as more people find their way to this little blog. For example: a long email from an aviation enthusiast who follows my […]
“In Poland, we don’t ask, we do. Why problem make when you no problem have you don’t want to make?” — Robert Stoltenberg as the Polsk bjørnejeger (Polish bear hunter) in TrollHunter Contagion (2011, USA) Contagion is the best virus epidemic movie to date. Extremely realistic and gimmick-free, a straight depiction of what it would […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic roundup of news about banned and challenged books. I thought this article about the still-widespread opposition to ebooks was interesting, particularly this paragraph: Add to that the e-book’s ease of transport, its international vocation (could the Iron Curtain have kept out e-books?), its indestructibility (you can’t burn e-books), […]
GOP Debate Audience Boos Contraception. Oh give me a break! Nearly everyone in that audience uses contraception or has a spouse who does, and none of them are planning to give it up. So what are they really booing? They’re booing the other tribe: liberals, Democrats, progressives, those hippies down in Tucson. A rough translation […]
I took a blogging break over the weekend. A friend came to visit and we put him up on the Murphy bed in the home office, limiting our access to the computers. Yeah, I could have done something with the iPad, but who has the patience to peck out an entire blog post with one […]