Thursday Bag o’ Owies

I took a fall in San Diego last week. Nine days it’s been, and I’m still recovering. They say men over 60 should stay off ladders. Well, someone on Twitter said it at any rate, and I agree. And men over 70 shouldn’t walk while looking through a camera viewfinder. I said that, and have the […]

Paul’s Book Reviews: Thrillers, Mysteries, Spies, Florida Noir

“I said nothing. I’m good at saying nothing. I don’t like talking. I could go the rest of my life without saying another word, if I had to.” —Lee Child, The Affair Raylan Givens 3-Book Collection: Pronto, Riding the Rap, Fire in the Hole (Raylan Givens #1-3) by Elmore Leonard Rayland Givins was a memorable […]

Air-Minded: San Diego Air & Space Photoblog

My friend John is a former Navy flight surgeon and Navy pilot, which makes him a member of a very small community. He flew F-4 Phantoms and F-14 Tomcats at the same time I flew F-15 Eagles for the Air Force. We’ve been friends since the early 1990s, when we were both on active duty […]

Road Trip

Our Sacramento company hit the road Friday, Polly reclaimed the guest bedroom, and things are back to normal. Until tomorrow, that is, when Donna and I will drop the dogs off at a friend’s house on the way out of town and hit the road ourselves. We’re going to see our friends John and Melanie in San Diego, pound the streets on […]

Home Is Where …

Donna’s Cousin Denise, her husband Clarence, and two youngsters, Solomon and Rachel, are visiting from Sacramento, California. We have a full house, so Polly has temporarily relocated to a friend’s mother-in-law cottage just down the road. I’ve known Denise as long as I’ve known Donna. The three of us met in the fall of 1964, as i started […]

Rites of Spring

Spring is here. You wouldn’t know it in the Northeast, but it’s lovely in the Southwest, and with our recent rain the Sonora Desert will soon be in bloom. In most parts of the country, students are out on spring break. In Tucson they’re out for the annual rodeo. For some, spring cleaning includes scrubbing up […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3)

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic column featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. YCRT! News The N-word strikes again: Harper Lee and Mark Twain pulled from Minnesota classrooms. Does this mean Duluth students will be left to read lesser literature? In Missouri, “… a significant uptick in efforts to outlaw books following the 2016 […]