Conversations in the Dark

I didn’t mean to disturb the sleeping homeless person. Last night was my last Harrisburg Senators game of the year — the season ended today, and I was in Lancaster instead, where they clinched the second half division title — and Harrisburg pulled off a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the tenth to takeContinue reading “Conversations in the Dark”

Roads I Have Traveled: Or, the Madness of Facebook’s Algorithms

Facebook’s feed algorithm is famously weird. It often “thinks” I’m interested in businesses in the Memphis area. I’ve never been to Memphis. It once recommended an Orthodox subscription box service and another time an Episcopalian dating website. Recently, it thinks I’m interested in PG-13 rated Frozen content. I am not. I’ve seen the film onceContinue reading “Roads I Have Traveled: Or, the Madness of Facebook’s Algorithms”

Sunset on the Susquehanna

The Harrisburg Senators had their first Marvel’s Defenders of the Diamonds Night, an official tie-in between Marvel (Comics or Studios, I’m not sure which) and Minor League Baseball. The game started at six and over by 8:15; enforcing the pitch clock and shortening the time between innings really makes things flow. I walked across theContinue reading “Sunset on the Susquehanna”

The Last Weekend of the Year on the Island

Where has summer gone? It seems like it was only days ago that I attended my first baseball game in a year and a half. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I attended my first baseball game in Lancaster? No. No, it was not. Those were in May and June. Labor Day is next week. HalloweenContinue reading “The Last Weekend of the Year on the Island”

2020: The Year In Review

Do I need to say that 2020 was an awful year? Must I? Let’s watch a Carl Sagan video before I get to my annual review of the first post of each month. This is not the “Pale Blue Dot” video I was looking for. I went through my blog archives, I went through myContinue reading “2020: The Year In Review”

A Mid-19th-Century View of Harrisburg

While poking around on the Internet this afternoon, I found something that would excite me — a bird’s eye view painting of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, done by an artist for Edward Sachse’s company in 1855. Sasche is an artist I’ve mentioned before in conjunction with my family genealogy — he did bird’s eye view maps ofContinue reading “A Mid-19th-Century View of Harrisburg”

Talking Grover with a Little Girl

I sat in the Beetle and cried. It wasn’t an ugly cry or an evil cry. Emotion had bubbled to the surface and, like an unstirred pot on the stove, boiled over. “I like your Grover mask,” said a little girl to me when I was leaving the ballpark, and what followed was the perhapsContinue reading “Talking Grover with a Little Girl”