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 […]
A Few of my Favorite Things I have often written of my love for The Simpsons. I still faithfully watch the television show, having never missed an episode. The latest offering, aired just a few days ago, is one of my favorites. This short post is about why I liked that 22 minutes more than […]
The Worst People in the World I really, really hate those guys. Buford Lister, personal communication I have a list of the worst people I have ever known; it is not a written list. I have it committed to memory; I will never forget who they are. I don’t dwell on it, but I use […]
A Problem with a Goat and a Rope I heard some news the other day. A man named Ingo Ullisch, a German mathematician, has solved The Tethered Goat Problem. Does that mark a significant achievement in the advancement of science? Probably not, but Ullisch did some excellent work. The problem seems pretty straightforward. You are […]
The Art of the Eavesdrop, Part Two Something extraordinary happened to me the other day. I decided to write a post to let everyone know exactly what happened. It was confusing; I remain astonished. My story begins at The Red Cat Café, one of Iroquois County’s finer dining establishments. I was sitting alone in […]