Three years ago, I began taking the Baltimore mass transit system to work. There’s a subway station near my house, there’s a light rail stop two blocks from the office that I can see from my sixth floor office. Why drive the Baltimore Beltway, when I can use public transportation? Not only is it theContinue reading “On Eulogizing a Man I Didn’t Know”
Author Archives: Allyn
On WordPress Upgrades and Errors
As much as I love and use WordPress, it can occasionally be a major pain in the ass. Like whenever upgrade time rolls around. There’s a certain amount of crossing fingers and praying when I upload a new batch of files to the server. Is the theme going to break? Is a plugin going toContinue reading “On WordPress Upgrades and Errors”
On Being Inside Another’s Head
At the subway station tonight, I climbed the six flights of stairs to the Beetle, unlocked the door, sat down, put the key in the ignition, and turned. The radio came on. I heard not a song but a commercial for American Idol. Tonight, the show was in Las Vegas. And the Idolators were goingContinue reading “On Being Inside Another’s Head”
On Peanuts Comic Books
Today, BOOM! Studios made two announcements. One, they are renaming their kids imprint, formerly BOOM Kids!, to Kaboom! Two, they are going to be doing something with Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. What, precisely, BOOM! intends to do with Peanuts is unclear, though the teaser image certainly offers a tantalizing clue. Observe the “Peanuts” logo. It’s notContinue reading “On Peanuts Comic Books”
On Sweetening the Farpoint Rewards Pot
Author extraordinare Dayton Ward can’t be at the Farpoint convention this weekend. He does, however, have a mission for congoers attending. One that, to some small degree, involves me. I’ll let Dayton explain fully, but here’s the gist. There are certain authors, myself among them, that he wants pictures taken of with a sign thatContinue reading “On Sweetening the Farpoint Rewards Pot”
Atonement
Be warned. This post contains spoilers for a three year-old film based on a decade-old book. Tuesday night, I finally saw Expiation. Or, as we say in the English-speaking world, Atonement, the 2007 film that starred James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, based on Ian McEwan’s Booker Prize-nominated novel. Yes, the DVD I own of theContinue reading “Atonement”
On My Desk at the Office
This is what happens when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in Gotham City… “What, are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I’m not the goddamn Doctor!” Doctor Who, as only Frank Miller could imagine it…
On Civ-Builders and Authoritarianism
Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan‘s blog at The Atlantic linked to an essay at The American Prospect by Monica Potts on how civ-building computer games don’t really allow for liberal-progressive solutions to life’s problems. Games like The Sims and Civilization model a rightward ideology, if not by design then certainly by practice. There are many ways toContinue reading “On Civ-Builders and Authoritarianism”
On the Future of Health Care Reform
I have been thinking about health care reform and what the future holds if, as the Teahadists want, President Obama’s signature achievement is thrown out in the courts in its entirety. Consider the individual mandate. Proposed in the mid-90s by Republicans as an alternative to Bill Clinton’s plan, the individual mandate is a profoundly conservativeContinue reading “On the Future of Health Care Reform”
On a Calendar in the Mail
An unexpected package arrived in the mail today. “The Hidden History of the United States 2011 Calendar,” courtesy of The Progressive. I subscribed to The Progressive for a few years, from ’98 to ’02. What soured me on the magazine was Howard Zinn’s response to 9/11, which I seem to remember as a “We broughtContinue reading “On a Calendar in the Mail”