"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
“Over the city lies the sweet, rotting odor of yesterday’s unrecollected sins.” – Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley I read Christopher Buckley’s editorials and essays with interest, but cannot endorse his fiction. Since I found my copy of Boomsday on the remainder shelf at Barnes & Noble, I suspect other readers have […]
“Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love ’em. ” — George Clooney as Ryan Bingham Up in the Air (2009). […]
It has been a while since I’ve photoblogged a bicycle ride. Let’s do something about that, shall we? We have our own bicycling group, the Spanish Trail Trash. This morning’s ride consisted of the Trail Trash core: Mary Anne (our leader), Darrell, Donna, and me. We met by the Rillito bike path at Campbell and […]
Remember Fredric Wertham, the 1950s anti-comic-book crusader? The Library of Congress has opened his private papers to scholars of censorship. Is that a photo of a man’s butt on the cover? Your book has just been banned in Canada! A new front in the fight against censorship: guerrilla libraries. Bummer. The small-brainers in Stockton, Missouri […]
What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and observations too short to rate blog posts of their own, but which might amount to something when aggregated together: Damen und Herren I always wanted to write a lengthy post on restroom signage, complete with illustrations. Well, what do you know? Someone saved me the trouble! A […]
I thought replacing my handlebar-mounted electrical switch module would be easy. My friend Ed, who doubles as my spiritual and mechanical guru, told me there was more to the job than I thought, and boy was he right. You see, it’s not just the module on the handlebar. That part is easy, or relatively so. […]
. . . and other things. I’ve been on my hands and knees in the back yard, pulling weeds. I’m reluctant to spray because the dog spends a lot of time out there. When it comes to the front yard, where the dog is not allowed, it’s going to be chemical warfare all the way. […]
“Time to nut up or shut up!” — Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee in Zombieland (2009). If you think I’ve been posting a lot of DVD reviews lately, you’re right. I’m doubling the frequency of DVD review posts in an effort to catch up with movies I’ve watched, cataloged, and previously reviewed on Facebook. Trouble is, […]