"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
While I was out riding my bicycle this morning, someone shot our congresswoman, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, at an open meeting in northwest Tucson. As I post this, news reports differ on whether she was killed or is still alive at a local hospital. She is, I suspect, dead; reports are that the gunman shot her […]
Last week I got an urgent message from the fine folks at WordPress, telling me I needed to upgrade to the latest WP release lest a security flaw in the version I was currently using bite me in the ass. They sounded genuinely concerned, so I figured I’d better do it. I’ve never forgotten the […]
The captain of the US Navy carrier Enterprise who made raunchy videos and showed them to his sailors? I feel sorry for the guy. Oh, he did a dumbass thing and totally deserves to lose his command, but I’ll bet that until the shit hit the fan he had no idea he was doing anything […]
These are the books that rocked me in 2010. Click any cover to read my review.
“People never explain to you exactly what they think and feel and how their thoughts and feelings work, do they? They don’t have time. Or the right words. But that’s what books do. It’s as though your daily life is a film in the cinema. It can be fun, looking at those pictures. But if […]
It’s the slack time between Christmas and New Year’s, and to all appearances, not much is going on. Jon Stewart’s on vacation, so nothing’s happening in Washington DC or the outside world. Current events are in short supply. Current events at Chez Paul? Also in short supply. We’re enjoying quiet nights at home. There’s only […]
The photos are from yesterday and today, Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve we had a house full of company. We wined them and dined them, and they helped us trim the tree. Polly’s friend Claire-Marie spent the night with us and shared Christmas morning with us. I just discovered Photobucket’s slide show […]
This is Sinterklaas, the Dutch Santa. Formerly the Archbishop of Turkey, Sint Nicolaas, Sinterklaas is shown with two of his Zwarte Pieten (there are six to eight Zwarte Pieten — “Black Petes” — originally Moorish slaves, but today more gently described as servants or even companions). Sinterklaas arrives in The Netherlands each November by steamboat […]