"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
It’s all stuff
Ode to Mr. Moto! Six Mitsubishis — with bombs all set to slide — The sailor gave his guns a squirt — and there were only five. Five Jap bombers thirsting still for gore, Our N.A. blipped another burst, and now — there’s only four. Four grim and deadley Nipponese droned o’er the Eastern Sea, […]
Remorse, yes; major-sin remorse, no. More like mild feelings of guilt for neglecting the blog, and you, my reader. I knew this would happen when I took on a competing writing task, my memoir, which creeps along in the background, one painfully-extracted sentence at a time. The day before yesterday I sent out a Paulgram newsletter. One of the […]
My niece Rebecca takes National Novel Writing Month seriously. I think the world of her, so I’m taking it seriously too. She sent a Google Doc link to her work in progress. I reciprocated with a link to mine, a chapter of a planned memoir. I was happy with it when I finished it a couple of months ago, but am less […]
There are a few small car shows in town during the hot months, but the big three in southern Arizona happen between October and February. The season kicked off yesterday with the annual Tucson Classics Car Show at the Gregory School. Next up: the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction in Scottsdale and the Collector Car Show on the golf course […]
The baseboards are in. The wall unit and Murphy bed go back in this afternoon, and with that we’re done with contractors. We did the painting but they did the heavy work. Because the walls and carpet had been damaged by an air conditioner leak, our homeowners insurance covered a lot of the work. The […]
A while back, people on Facebook were filling out the “Five Cars I’ve Had” survey. I started to fill it out too, but quickly gave up. It was for young drivers, not those of us who’ve been around for a while. It couldn’t come close to conveying our automotive history: Donna and I have owned way more than […]
No question, the last couple of days have contained mixed blessings. On the one hand, a wet dog-smelling disaster. On the other hand, a treasure trove of rediscovered mementos … and how odd they should turn up just as I’m starting work on a memoir!
We’re having friends over for dinner tonight, my excuse to make braised beef short ribs, which we haven’t had in literally years. I don’t know about where you live, but here we rarely find beef short ribs in the grocery store or base commissary. We get ours at the local butcher shop, where they cut them to […]