Roy My ears ring; the technical term is tinnitus. If I am in total quiet, I can hear whistling coming from my ears. And yes, it is annoying. That is why I sleep with a television on. The TV’s sound drowns out the noise coming from my ears, and all is well with the world. […]
Mozart with a Telecaster Where have all the great composers gone? That was a question Stephen Jay Gould once asked in one of his essays. Gould was a Harvard professor who, among many other things, was the greatest essayist on scientific topics the world has ever seen. Known primarily as an evolutionary biologist, he had […]
The Magic of Harvard University …a guest post by Buford Lister Hello, my name is Buford Lister. I am honored to be writing for you today. As you may already know, I am the creation of an unknown author. Ryan-Tyler N. Mason? That guy doesn’t exist; he is merely a figment of an aging, yet […]
I recently completed another video for The WRB Project. This one is a little different than the others. Enjoy…
The Magnificent Alan Smithee Buford Lister has been giving me lots of trouble lately. He has asked for meetings with me and the man who created me. He has even approached the implied author, the man that the reader senses when they read my stories. This is getting exhausting. As I recall, Dr. Frankenstein had […]
I Aced Howard Zinn Over 30 years ago, I took a historiography class at Harvard. I can still remember the room the course was held in; the water cooler always had lots of tea packets available for whoever wanted one. I liked the professor; I took multiple courses with him. I learned a lot during […]
An Experiment I have long said that The United States of America is an experiment, that democracy itself is an experiment. There is no guarantee this is going to last. There is no guarantee this is going to work. I often ask myself why we stay together as a nation when everyone hates each other […]
A Writer’s Dilemma How is your life going? Do you wake up every morning wondering how many problems you are going to face that day? Do you worry about how many fires you are going to have to put out? Do you like living like that? Do you ever wish life could be something other […]
King of the Comma Splice What is the most crucial factor if a person wishes to become a productive and successful writer? Discipline? The fortitude to read lots and lots of books? Education in the way of words? Plenty of interesting and unusual life experiences? While all those things are important, I think there is […]
Roman, Arabic, and…Cistercian? We’ve all seen Roman Numerals. For some reason, I was taught those letters at some point in grade school. The odd thing is, none of my teachers ever taught me to add or subtract in that format. How about multiplication or division? If you ever tried it, you know that Roman […]