Smile!

I posted this vintage Christmas card to Facebook to amuse my friends. The kid’s woeful expression prompted a few comments. Really, though, if you study 19th and early 20th century portraits, photos, and illustrations, unsmiling faces were the rule rather than the exception. People always looked somber. I started to wonder why that was. Well, for one thing, […]

On the Road, Talkin’ War

Daesh terrorists hit Paris while my buddies and I were in California on a motorcycle trip. We talked about it during stops, and were glued to our motel room TVs at night. I felt, and still feel, that what happened in France has the potential to swing our upcoming presidential election to the Republican candidate, whoever that […]

Thursday Bag o’ Stars & Hearts

Half my friends say they hate Twitter. Half say they don’t get it. Either way, only a few use it. That right there differentiates Twitter from Facebook. I go to Facebook to find out what friends are up to and to tell them what I’m up to. I go to Twitter for information. It’s useful in a […]

I Know, Let’s Have a Debate!

We watched the first Democratic presidential debate this week. Judging by the wealth of post-debate comments posted on social media, we weren’t alone. Most of us who sat down to watch already knew our own favored candidate would win, and funnily enough, that’s exactly how it worked out. I’m no different. I favored Hillary Clinton going in, […]

Trumped Again, By Golly!

No, I wasn’t thinking of The Donald. I was thinking of this guy: Pretty much shows you where the battle lines are drawn today. Thank you, Antonin Scalia, for perverting the meaning of the 2nd Amendment and giving the gun nuts something to hide behind. Hide behind the 2nd Amendment they might, but sensible people will continue to fight […]

Cable News

My problem is I still think of the primetime MSNBC news shows … All In with Chris Hayes, the Rachel Maddow Show, the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell … as news shows. Chris Hayes, I’ll give him this, covers a lot of news (his recent series on water use in the American Southwest was exceptionally good), but […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Original Sin

A friend passed along a link to a New York Times opinion column on the discrepancy between our feelings about the killing of people and the killing of animals. One line jumped out at me: “Animals are not stained by original sin.”