"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
In the news
Just so we’re all on the same page again: cultie=cult bike=Ducati. That there is a Ducati bag I’m tempted to buy. It would go on the little rack in back. Of course I’d need a magnetic tank bag as well. Oh, wait. The cultie’s going to be Polly’s ride, not mine. Time to stop thinking […]
By now, I’m sure, you’ve heard about the Special Operations Opsec Education Fund, a group of retired military officers trying to swiftboat President Obama. According to them, Obama should have kept the killing of Osama bin Laden a secret. By announcing that US forces had caught and killed bin Laden, they say, Obama compromised classified operational […]
God, have I been neglecting the blog lately! Of course if I don’t blog every day I feel neglectful … that Puritan streak of mine is a mile wide. No theme today; just a bag full of miscellaneous thoughts. One of my sisters is mad at me for picking on Missouri. Well, I pick on […]
Several famous people have died recently, but astronaut Sally Ride’s death weighs on me more than the others. It’s not just that she was cheated of her threescore and ten, it’s that she was younger than me. When you reach a certain age, that becomes a comparative yardstick, and a gloomy one. I, like pretty […]
A shopping bag seems appropriate for this update, because I have in fact been shopping: for used motorcycle parts, raspberry iced tea, a pair of moccasins, a wifi range extender … The smell of consumer lust permeates Casa Paul. These days I do most of my shopping online, mainly through Amazon and eBay. I used […]
We’re taking our grandson Quentin bicycling tomorrow morning. Our friend Mary Anne is bringing along her granddaughter Jade. To keep the kids entertained, I thought we’d mix bicycling with geocaching. Turns out there are several caches near the park we’re meeting at tomorrow. Not wanting to embarrass myself in front of the children (or the adults), […]
What does that title even mean? Is the cat named Wednesday? Sure, why not? Let’s go with that. My son can’t believe I haven’t said anything about the F-22’s oxygen problems, or about the two whistleblower Raptor pilots who appeared on 60 Minutes last weekend. My first excuse comes easy: I know very little about […]
When I read The Hunger Games last year, one game contestant from the first book stood out from the others: Rue, the 12-year-old from one of Panem’s agricultural districts. Katniss, who volunteers for the games to protect her own 12-year-old sister, forms an alliance with Rue, even though they both know that if it comes […]