Writing My Congressman: The New Overtime Rules

I took some time and wrote a letter — on paper! — to my Congressman. What motivated me?

House Republicans are attempting to stop the NLRB’s new overtime rules for salaried employees in an appropriations bill. Such a move would affect me directly; right now, when the rules go into effect, I would effectively be looking at a meaningful pay raise.

Choosing Irish Music over a Science Fiction Convention

Friday Shore Leave begins. For the first time in fifteen years, I won’t be there. The Annapolis Irish Festival also begins Friday. Carbon Leaf is one of the headliners. I’m attending that instead. This wasn’t an easy decision to make. Allyn Agonistes. Shore Leave, I’ve attended every year since 2001. (And I went to theContinue reading “Choosing Irish Music over a Science Fiction Convention”

A Quiet and Unplanned Baseball Game

Yesterday evening, after dropping off a coworker at the Light Rail, I drove into Towson for another Baltimore Redbirds baseball game. No magical reason for doing so; I’d been expecting to have to stay late at the office or possibly take editorial copy home to write, but Tuesday was incredibly productive in that I wroteContinue reading “A Quiet and Unplanned Baseball Game”

A Rainy Fourth of July

Over the weekend, I thought about going to Washington, DC for A Capitol Fourth. I’ve gone twice before, so it wouldn’t have been anything new, but I’ve been feeling the creeping need of late to spend time in, as they like to call it on CBS’ BrainDead, “this town.” But the weather forecast for theContinue reading “A Rainy Fourth of July”

An Evening of College Baseball

I hadn’t been to a baseball game in six weeks, not since I saw the Myrtle Beach Pelicans play the Frederick Keys, a game I called “a garbage game” because, frankly, the Keys played like stinky garbage. Then the Beetle died, I had to get together the money to replace it, and, finally, this weekContinue reading “An Evening of College Baseball”

On the Eve of Garrison Keillor’s Final Prairie Home Companion

Tonight, Garrison Keillor is recording his final A Prairie Home Companion, to be broadcast tomorrow night in its regular time slot. There’s a certain sadness to this. My parents have listened to A Prairie Home Companion for decades, and I seem to recall that they went to a live show in the early 90s. IContinue reading “On the Eve of Garrison Keillor’s Final Prairie Home Companion”