"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
. . . but have you seen this commercial yet? Jesus. I remember how shocked Donna and I were when we saw our first Ultra Brite commercial . . . remember the toothpaste that gave your mouth “sex appeal”? That was in the late 60s or early 70s, back when you couldn’t say the word […]
Some time ago, on my other blog, I expounded on “internet” versus “Internet.” This is what I said: Yeah, I know we’re supposed to capitalize “internet.” Some people even capitalize “web.” I won’t do it. Is internet capitalized because it’s relatively new? What about telegraph, telephone, and television? Did they capitalize those words when they were […]
After my father died, I said I’d write more about him. My Uncle Lindley unearthed a letter Dad wrote to me in 1992, describing the ship he was assigned to at the end of World War II, when he was a sailor in the US Navy. Here are some excerpts from Dad’s letter: The Bolster, an Auxiliary Repair Ship […]
Everybody’s seen Easy Rider, right? So Donna and I were flipping through channels the other night, and we caught the last half hour of Easy Rider on American Movie Classics. Something struck me as really odd, and I’m wondering if anyone else saw the same thing. There’s Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and the two prostitutes in […]
. . . sorry, couldn’t help myself!
My friend Dick Herman, in a comment to an earlier entry, asked for my thoughts on the warrior ethic. For a few years, back when my career was on fire, I was on the staff of a joint command, working with Army, Navy, and Marine officers. Army and Marine officers could philosophize about the warrior […]
Report Uncovers Astronauts’ Heavy Alcohol Use. Oh my. Here’s what I read between the lines of the linked article: NASA, in the wake of the Lisa Nowak incident, has been busy hunting witches in the astronaut program. Astronaut pilots, astronaut mission specialists, and astronaut flight surgeons are turning on each other. It must be a horrible […]
How unobservant I’ve been . . . we have goldfinches and I just noticed them! These aren’t the more colorful goldfinches you see in the East and Midwest, but for the desert they’re quite gaudy. If I were one of them I’d resent the name “Lesser Goldfinch.” These birds are quite small, about half the size […]