On Winter Festivals

Christopher Hitchens confuses me. Don’t misunderstand. I enjoy reading Hitchens. I don’t exactly agree with Hitchens. He reminds me of something Stephen Fry wrote recently, on the subject of dinner arguments: I was warned many, many years ago by the great Jonathan Lynn, co-creator of Yes Minister and director of the comic masterpiece My CousinContinue reading “On Winter Festivals”

On First-of-the-Month Hits

From the creative mind of Keith DeCandido, “Tell what the first post of every month of the 2007 calendar year was.” Okie-day! January: On Incompetant Blundering — An after-action report of an Age of Empires III game. February: On Invitations — I was invited to a blogger conference. March: On the New Mission — IContinue reading “On First-of-the-Month Hits”

On Christmas Music

It surprises people, when they know my lack of religious inclinations, that I enjoy listening to Christmas music. Indeed, I listen to Christmas music pretty much year ’round. And it’s not even purely secular Christmas music I listen to. Yes, I have Fleming & John’s “Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” done in theContinue reading “On Christmas Music”

On Things I Don’t Remember

Baltimore has two daily newspapers. There’s the Baltimore Sun, the venerable institution, a pretty-much down-the-middle newspaper politically. And then there’s the free daily, the Baltimore Examiner, which is well to the right. I bring this up, because I discovered, through an Internet search, that I’d written a letter to the Examiner, back in March. AndContinue reading “On Things I Don’t Remember”