We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die […]
For more than 40 years we’ve been watching public service announcements exhorting us to “buckle up for safety.” We’ve seen terrifying post-crash photos with somber-voiced narrators and talking crash test dummies. Frankly, I would have thought it impossible to come up with an utterly fresh way to promote seatbelt use. But this last week I saw […]
At some point in the next few overnight hours, the temperature here will drop below 70 degrees for the first time in about three months. Our long, monotonous string on 105-ish degree afternoons and 88 degree mornings is about to come to an end. Cooler, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean “wetter.” And we remain in […]
If only to get something fresh posted to the blog, here are a few images I captured during my time in Angola (with some sporadic commentary). The Baobab trees are freakishly large. This is far from the largest specimen I saw there. It’s just one I was able to get close to. Little Women at […]
Okay, it wasn’t really a vacation. Haven’t had one of those in about three years. But as they say, a change is as good as a rest. And my 10 days in Angola recently certainly qualifies as a change. I was a writer attached to a video crew and still photographer documenting the work of […]
Traveled with Mrs. Blather and FOU#3 to southeastern Oklahoma last night to spend a few days with Mom at the old homestead. Mom will be 80 on Sunday. As regular readers know, Dad passed away last October so Mom is in that cycle of sad firsts. First Christmas without Dad. First wedding anniversary. His birthday […]
Just finished watching a disturbing, powerful and brilliantly produced documentary on the National Geographic Channel called Hitler’s Hidden Holocaust. It is heartbreaking profile of the little-known Nazi SS “Einsatzgruppen” (German for “action groups”) In the years before the Nazis hit upon the concept of the death camps, the various Einsatzgruppen moved methodically through German occupied […]
Back in junior high, I read George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World back to back. These weren’t assigned by a teacher. They were just part of my recreational reading I was doing back then–which involved devouring pretty much every science fiction book I could get my hands on. (Those covers shown above […]
Came across this remarkable pair of photographs today over at the BoingBoing blog. A father and son who had been present at the very first space shuttle launch back in April of 1981 made sure they were together for the final one last week. There is something quite extraordinary about the juxtaposition of these two […]
I’m still looking for an online iteration of that massively offensive AT&T spot in which the all-wise wife and kid attempt to explain the concept of wireless internet to Unfrozen Caveman Father. The child ultimately tells him there’s an “invisible cord” but he remains bewildered. In the previous post, I suggested that one reason Doofus […]
