"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
This story made the rounds earlier in the week: after the 9/11 terror attacks the Bush administration directed the State Department to prepare magazines about American life and culture for distribution in Arab countries. During a meeting to review a draft photo-essay for the magazine, a high-level State Department political appointee rejected a photo of […]
No, it wasn’t our summer vacation, it was our kids’. But we were part of it, and anyway, I love that song (oh oh oh oh oh oh)! Now that the kids — our son Gregory, daughter in law Beth, and grandchildren Taylor and Quentin — have piled into the Family Truckster and hit the […]
As I mentioned in a previous entry, our son and daughter-in-law shipped our grandson Quentin to us for a week, then drove down themselves to reunite with him and spend the 4th of July weekend with us. Gregory, Beth, and our granddaughter Taylor (now old enough to drive, dear Lord) are here now and will […]
“Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer in Gabrielsson’s possession; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which was intended to contain an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.” — Wikipedia Given the phenomenal worldwide popularity of the first three Larsson novels — […]
What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and observations which don’t rate separate blog posts, but when aggregated together might amount to something: The Tube I was 14 years old when The Flintstones began running on TV. Hanna-Barbara was already famous for introducing cartoons to prime time with Huckleberry Hound, so there was a lot […]
Here, fresh from the interwebs, a roundup of book banning stories and news: Guaranteed to stir up the book banners: books about Teh Gay in school libraries. What can’t you read in prison? Lots, apparently. And maybe there are some books you shouldn’t be able to read in prison, or even on the outside. That […]
“I suggest a new strategy, R2: let the Wookiee win.” — Anthony Daniels as C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977). Two notes for my reader(s?), before I get to the reviews: I have built up a huge backlog of movie reviews to post here, and promise to try to catch […]
What’s in Paul’s grab bag? Unconnected thoughts and observations which don’t rate separate blog posts, but when aggregated together might amount to something: Recently Overheard: “I knew the car companies were going under 20 years ago, when the union guys started making six figures and buying summer homes.” — attorney friend at a house party […]