July 2011

Speaking of luck …

July 31, 2011

Today I’m writing from the Virginia home of my daughter Jessie, who writes the blog Rurally Screwed and who has emerged as a pretty good example of how one does the whole blog thing correctly. (Step 1: Make it about something, and update it every day, instead of just when you feel like it.) Jessie [...]

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Sorry about the debt ceiling

July 29, 2011

Dear American Express: I regret to inform you that effective Aug. 2, I will cease payments on my outstanding credit-card debt. It is with a heavy heart that I take this action, but let me explain. Last year at this time, in attempt to get a handle on expenses, I imposed a debt ceiling on [...]

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Who’s the Nazi now?

July 25, 2011

As someone who used to write newspaper columns and now tries to write blog posts at least four times a month, I can understand the tremendous pressure to come up with topics. Even a lame-ass site like this one is a hungry beast. The more gruel I shovel at it, the more it wants. Sometimes [...]

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A shooting on Market Street

July 23, 2011

A guy got shot in our new neighborhood last night. Apparently he was walking along Market Street when three bravos came up and demanded his dough. When the old guy kept on walking, one them produced a small-caliber handgun and shot him in the back. In the dry vernacular of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, “the [...]

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A little nostalgic for the future

July 21, 2011

One of the great things about growing up in the ’50s and early ’60s is that it seemed a pretty optimistic time — except for the part about fall-out shelters and irradiated snow from all those nuclear tests. My brother Ed had a subscription to Popular Mechanics just for the tantalizing visions of the future [...]

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The goodness that is ‘Breaking Bad’

July 19, 2011

OK, I won’t review the season four premiere of Breaking Bad, except to say that the writing is stronger than ever and those two memorable characters, Jessie and Walt, are becoming unforgettable. Looks like they’re in for a very tough ride in the weeks ahead. Note to Walt: Next time you see Gus Fring getting [...]

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Swine in the news

July 15, 2011

It’s been a tough week. You can imagine my stunned disbelief to learn recently that Charlie Sheen is not, in fact, dead.  The rumors were greatly exaggerated. Around here, we’re in about the third stage of of grief over it.  Next thing you know, we’re going to find out that Osama bin Laden isn’t dead [...]

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We don’t need no stinking iPads

July 8, 2011

Today marks day 528 of my quest to do without an iPad. That’s one full year and, let’s see … quite a few days. It’s been a hell of a sacrifice, but that’s how I roll. Like most of the things I do, this is for the children.  When the iPad was first released in [...]

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Guilty, yes. Pleasure, not so much.

July 7, 2011

When one speaks of “guilty pleasures” in reading, it usually means one is reading trash, but one is enjoying the hell out of it anyway. I wouldn’t call George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series trash exactly, but it is fantasy, and fantasy has long been the preferred genre of dorks and misfits and [...]

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Happy Fifth of July

July 5, 2011

Yeah, I should have posted this last night, but by the time we were done fighting traffic after the big fireworks show, the wife and I were fighting too and the holiday seemed spent. Anyway, we had a great seat for the pyrotechnics: the balcony of a friend’s apartment on the 22nd floor, overlooking the [...]

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