Things to Ban Instead of Commonly Banned Books

I don’t often copy from other blogs, but IMHO The Hairpin scored major points here and I feel the need to blockquote a couple of samples: Commonly Banned: The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Ban Instead: Explanations of why The Catcher in the Rye is overrated to people who’ve just said that it’s meaningful to […]

Debating with Myself

All I could think, watching Obama and Romney debate last night, was how furious Bill Clinton must have been with Barack: “There! Right there! Call him on that! He’s lyin’! He can’t back that up! Now’s your chance! Go for the throat! Arrgh, what’s wrong with you tonight, son?” So many easy setups. So many […]

Prohibition and Gun Control: That Dog Won’t Hunt

A Facebook friend shares a letter to her home-town newspaper: Dear [name of town], I almost lost a good friend last night. After an evening of drinking he stumbled, by accident, into the wrong house during the wee hours of the morning and received two gunshot wounds for his mistake. While I don’t know all […]

Another Bag o’ Friday Happiness

Hey, I may not drink any more, but I still know what TGIF means to most Americans! And I can still dream (sob). I feel like frying some fish filets tonight: catfish, red snapper, tilapia, whatever catches my eye. Good bread and a green vegetable to serve on the side, maybe Swiss chard … something […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Forever

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Arizona Banned Chicano writers respond to the Tucson Unified School District book banning by publishing an anthology titled “Ban This!” What do you suppose the odds are it’ll be adopted by TUSD? The only thing better than having a locally […]

Mini-Gypsy Tour II

Wow, two long motorcycle tours in one year (click here for a writeup of my earlier 2012 two-wheeled adventure)—just call me Iron Butt Paul! American motorcyclists have been riding Gypsy Tours since 1917, and they’ve always been hard-core affairs—long distances, sleeping under the stars, campfires, canned beans, roadside engine repairs and tire changes—a style of […]

Makers and Takers

Gee, I’m not sure where Donna and I fall on Romney’s moocher scale. After all, 47 percent of Americans is a lot of people, and income-wise we’re closer to them than we are to the other end of the scale. Let’s see: Things we never took: food stamps, welfare Things we took: two federally-guaranteed student […]

My Name Is and I’m a Freelance Writer

Wow, now people want to write for my blog! When did I become so popular and influential? No shit, check out the email I got this morning: Hi Paul, I hope this e-mail finds you well. I only recently started reading your blog, but it has quickly become part of my daily blog browsing. My name […]