"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
A friend asked me to list the best books I read in 2015. I record and review the books I read on Goodreads (43 of them in 2015). Looking over this year’s list, I realized some top-rated books meant more to me than others. They are the books that left lasting impressions and made me […]
A quiet day, at least for now. Shopping and wrapping? Done. Cards and letters? In the mail. House cleaned? Almost there. Decorations and lights up? Roger that. Christmas tunes on the CD changer? Fa la la la la, la la la la! An unexpected blogging window has opened, and I’m taking advantage of it. The critters, […]
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, […]
“I look at my yesterdays for months past, and find them as good a lot of yesterdays as anybody might want. I sit there in the firelight and see them all. The hours that made them were good, and so were the moments that made the hours. I have had responsibilities and work, dangers and […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. When this high school principal says “Parents should have the right to determine what their students are exposed to in the classrooms,” what she really means is that parents of a few students get to set school policy on what […]
Yesterday Polly and I visited our friend Ed’s garage to do some cosmetic work on the Ducati. Ed, as regular readers know, is not only a friend but my motorcycle maintenance guru. With his help, we put on new clutch & brake levers, bar end mirrors, and front turn signals. The bike’s still a little rough, but there must […]
Criticism of Obama is agenda-driven (that agenda being total opposition to anything a a black Democrat president does) and would be just as nasty no matter what he did. Killing Osama bin Laden? Total pussy. Busting up dozens of planned terrorist plots against American targets? Total pussy. Preventing a repeat of 9/11? Total pussy. Bombing ISIS? Total pussy. Ah, but if Putin drops a few bombs on ISIS, more than a year after Obama started dropping bombs on ISIS, he’s a real man, right?