"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Our other children
Sometimes I break down and express political, social, or moral thoughts on this blog. I don’t write about controversial subjects because I think I can change your mind. I do it to examine my assumptions and clarify my thinking. Most people I talk to have set views. They either get their news from Rachel Maddow […]
Here are a few headlines from recent days: Out of the sack, cat! Sleeping with pets carries disease risk Letting sleeping dogs lie in your bed can kill you Sleeping next to pets could be harmful, study says Don’t sleep with your pet, you may catch something (possibly bubonic plague) Sleeping with pets exposes owners […]
My motorcycle trip threw me off my blogging schedule. Hey, I’m looking for something to blame … something other than myself, that is … and the motorcycle trip is handy. Speaking of motorcycle trips, I amused myself by going on a short (less than 100 miles) ride this morning, heading down to the Triple T […]
Nancy Nall on today’s earthquake in Japan: “I’m touched by the grocery-store employees whose first impulse is to try to protect the stock from falling off the shelves. We give our lives to our jobs and we take pride in even the smallest ones. We deserve a few benefits in the bargain, Gov. Walker, you […]
I’ve never liked entrapment. Not when the police do it, not when civilians do it. Not when the right does it, not when the left does it. I particularly don’t like it when people are tricked into voicing their personal, non-job-related opinions on things, then lose their jobs as a result. But you know what […]
Last month, in the wake of the Tucson shootings, I joined a chorus of bloggers commenting on what many saw as a connection … not necessarily causal but closely related … between calls to violence from the right and the spate of politically- and ideologically-motivated shootings we’ve seen in our country over the past two […]
Earlier today, as Schatzi and I emerged from the house for our morning constitutional, a raven lifted off from a palo verde tree across the street. It’s a windy day here in Tucson, so the raven was able to turn into the wind and hover, holding position a few feet away and slightly above us. […]
I make a dish called pasta puttanesca; literally, “whore’s spaghetti.” The sauce is made of olive oil, garlic, anchovies, chopped tomatoes, capers, basil, and perhaps a few olives, tossed into pasta. Last night, since I was about to sit down to watch President Obama deliver the annual State of the Union address to an assembly […]