A Wrenching Morning

That would be “wrenching” as in “motorcycle maintenance.”  I found oil under my motorcycle the other day.  With older bikes (and non-Japanese bikes in general), oil on the garage floor is pretty much standard … but it’s not something you want to see underneath a Honda Goldwing. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind it […]

Air-Minded: Art Planes at the Air Museum

The aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB turned local artists loose on some old aircraft.  The results are soon to go on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum.  I watched them tow a few out into the yard this week and took some photos: There are more to come, and the exhibit, called The […]

Minion of the Great Orange Satan

I decided to become a Daily Kos diarist (or, as my conservative friends will say, a minion of the Great Orange Satan).  I started with a diary entry about the confiscation and banning of books in the Tucson Unified School District, put together from two recent posts here on Paul’s Thing (here and here). Only […]

Our Dogs’ Very Bad No Good Awful Scary Morning

This morning we took our dogs to the veterinary clinic at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.*  Schatzi goes in every January for a checkup and shots as required.  We took Maxie too, so that both our girls will be on the same schedule from here on out. Of course we’ve cared for Schatzi since she was […]

The Test of Character

Some of my Facebook friends have been drinking the Koolaid: When it comes to Joe Paterno, I’m with Nancy Nall: whatever he may have achieved in life, when assistant coach McQueary came to him and told him what Jerry Sandusky was doing to a boy in the locker room, JoePa failed the test of character. […]

Don’t Knock the Liberal Arts

Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary recently wrote a column titled “Not All College Majors Are Created Equal.”  You can click the link and read the whole thing, but if you’re in a hurry, the first few lines say it all: I have this game I play when I meet college students. “What’s your major?” I […]

You Can’t Read That! Fahrenheit 451 in Tucson, Continued

Two days ago I wrote about the cancellation of Mexican American and Native American Studies classes in Tucson high schools, and the large-scale book banning that followed. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) officials confiscated books and other materials used in the cancelled classes, boxed them, and shipped them to a storage facility.  Local, national, and […]

Car Mania (Updated)

Three years ago I visited the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I figured it’s been long enough, so yesterday I drove up again, this time with my friend Ed.  It was a long day: two-and-a-half-hours on the freeway going and coming; another four or five hours tramping around the tent city at Barrett-Jackson, ogling […]