Today I went for a walkabout. It’s a nice autumn day, it’s nice to get outside. The walk just so happened to coincide with the Automattic Worldwide WP 5K, a virtual 5K for users of WordPress. It’s not really a race, and I certainly didn’t run. So, I’ll say that my walk today was partContinue reading “A Graveyard of Watermelons”
Remembering Grover’s Mill
Today’s episode of Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac begins thusly: “It was on this day in 1938 that a cylindrical Martian spaceship landed in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey, and began incinerating onlookers with an alien heat ray, an event that was covered by the Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations, and that caused widespreadContinue reading “Remembering Grover’s Mill”
A Return to Lankhmar
In the 1970s, DC Comics published a five-issue series, Sword of Sorcery, with adaptations of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series by Denny O’Neill, Howard Chaykin, and Walt Simonson. I bought the issues off of eBay about a decade ago, which left as the one F&tGM hole in my collection the Wonder WomanContinue reading “A Return to Lankhmar”
Joe Biden’s Window Closes
I admit, I’m disappointed that Joe Biden isn’t running for president. His speech yesterday in the Rose Garden, with his wife Jill to one side and the president to the other, was pure Joe Biden — funny, warm, forceful, and a little bitrandom. His window closed, and maybe it was never open, but I’ll missContinue reading “Joe Biden’s Window Closes”
The Semi-Colon Is Never Not Stylish
About a year ago I had to edit some copy a colleague had written for the catalog. It was a thoughtful, well-written piece, and it also happened to run over five hundred words, which was about two and a half times the number of words that would fit into the space we had on theContinue reading “The Semi-Colon Is Never Not Stylish”
Why the Doctor Looks Like Peter Capaldi
Two years ago, Steven Moffat cast Peter Capaldi as the twelfth Doctor. This wasn’t Capaldi’s first brush with the Whoniverse as an actor; he had previously played the Roman Caecilius in “The Fires of Pompeii” and British government functionary John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth. There was a reason, Moffat said, why the twelfthContinue reading “Why the Doctor Looks Like Peter Capaldi”
On the Occasion of John Lennon’s 75th Birthday
Today, John Lennon would have been seventy-five. That seems almost impossible to credit. In our minds, an image burned in from pictures or movies or television or music, he’s always a young man, never quite reaching middle age. I’m older now than Lennon was when he was killed. We remember him young, because he neverContinue reading “On the Occasion of John Lennon’s 75th Birthday”
The Peanuts Movie Novelization
Yesterday evening I went to the BAM! (formerly Books a Million) near York Galleria, not for any particular reason, just to get away from the gloom and the muck that had been all day Saturday thanks to the rain brought by Hurricane Joaquin. There I found a most unexpected book — The Peanuts Movie MovieContinue reading “The Peanuts Movie Novelization”
The Resignation of Boehner
Speaker of the House John Boehner has announced his intention to resign. A week ago, I speculated on his future prospects — House Republicans on his right flank were making noises about unseating him, and might he need Democratic votes to save his Speakership? The possibility of his resignation, mid-term, didn’t even occur to me;Continue reading “The Resignation of Boehner”
The Religious Bigotry of Ben Carson, Candidate
Let me state upfront that Ben Carson has disqualified himself to be the next president of the United States with his statement about how a Muslim cannot be president, a statement that prompted Ta-Nahesi Coates to label him a “bigot” in a piece for The Atlantic this morning. But I want to dig down intoContinue reading “The Religious Bigotry of Ben Carson, Candidate”