January began and ended with Sherlock Holmes. On New Year’s Day, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes film. Then, in the mood for more Sherlock Holmes, I read Loren D. Estleman’s Sherlock Holmes Vs. Dracula for perhaps the tenth time. This was followed by reading some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories;Continue reading “On Holmesiana”
On Political Surveys
I receive a lot of political mail. Oftentimes, it’s parties or candidates wanting donations. Last year, during the Presidential primaries, I must’ve received fundraising letters from every major candidate. Most were binned. The letters I enjoy the most? The ones from the Republican Party or its think tanks. Take, for instance, yesterday. I received aContinue reading “On Political Surveys”
On Non-Standard Punctuation
In my quest for new and ever-more-interesting ways to communicate, I have discovered non-standard punctuation. We all know periods and commas. I am particularly fond of the semi-colon, and I make fair use of dashes. (Dashes are the “house style” at work. I am not, actually, a fan of the dash. I find it… sloppy.)Continue reading “On Non-Standard Punctuation”
On Literary Confusion
I went downstairs to fix a cup of coffee. I needed a break from the word processor; the flow of words had come to a careening halt. My grandmother was watching television. I heard the voice of Mo Rocca. She was watching CBS Sunday Morning. He was talking about Grover’s Corners. “Grover’s Corners,” I thought.Continue reading “On Literary Confusion”
On Birds in the Snow
About an hour ago, snow began to fall on Baltimore. The weather forecast earlier this morning called for one to three inches of accumulation. A few hours later, during Car Talk, the local NPR news announcer revised that forecast upward to ten inches. (Correction: Ten inches is the Eastern Shore. Charm City is still justContinue reading “On Birds in the Snow”
On Today’s Typography Lesson
It has only taken twenty years, but I have finally found the font I wanted. In the mid-1980s, Del Rey used a distinctive typeface for the tables of contents or chapter headings of many of their science fiction novels. Foundation and Earth. The Songs of Distant Earth. The Integral Trees. Robots and Empire. A reallyContinue reading “On Today’s Typography Lesson”
On Passages
Yesterday, Howard Zinn passed away. Today, J.D. Salinger. I’ve read both men’s work. I would not characterize myself as a fan of other, though I respected what they both wrote, even liked much of it. Salinger I read, like most people, in high school. I didn’t find his work as revelatory as my classmates did.Continue reading “On Passages”
On the Way I Write
Ah, the silence. I’ve not forgotten about you all, promise. I’ve just been busy. Writing. Watching Monsterpiece Theater. Listening to old Natalie Merchant albums. Writing. But mainly writing. I can tell you that I’ve been putting together some interesting words, building interesting sentences from them, and the resulting idea structures are cool to look at.Continue reading “On the Way I Write”
On Things I’ve Discovered While Writing Today
In no particular order… Mountaineering is an apt and interesting metaphor for life John Nathan-Turner is eminently quotable in virtually any circumstance I really like listening to The Seventeenth Century at this particular point in time Politics influences everything Sometimes, when I have a really good idea, I just have to scribble a few thoughts,Continue reading “On Things I’ve Discovered While Writing Today”
On New Internet Toys
There’s a new Opera Pre-Alpha to play with! As longtime Allynologists know, my browser of choice is Opera. I’ll use Firefox in a pinch, though I don’t like how it looks. It’s sterile. I don’t like its rendering engine. That said, I do stay current on Firefox, and I just downloaded Firefox 3.6. (I haveContinue reading “On New Internet Toys”