by Rhiannon Paine | Dec 29, 2011 | Artists & the Arts, General, Just for Fun, Speaking Out
Once upon a time there lived a woodcutter who could no longer afford to feed his children. “Off you go,” he said, shoving them out the door. “Fine. Whatever,” said Hansel. “We were going to run away anyway if we didn’t get a Wii for Christmas.” He and his sister set...
by Rhiannon Paine | Dec 22, 2011 | General, Once Upon a Time
I wasn’t dreaming of a white Christmas in December 1987. In California we like to confine our snow to the ski slopes where it can make itself useful. What I wanted to do was host my family — parents, sister, and Aunt Catherine — in the Victorian...
by Rhiannon Paine | Dec 16, 2011 | Artists & the Arts, General, Just for Fun
Great works of literature can be discouraging for the novice writer. You labor for months to create something as enduring as Persuasion or Middlemarch, all the while suspecting that you’re not going to make it with your own book, Bread-Pudding Days. But even the...
by Rhiannon Paine | Dec 8, 2011 | General, Speaking Out
It’s official: austerity is the new black. Yes, austerity is what you’ll be wearing for spring, unless you’re in the 1%, and Google Analytics tells me that only one of my readers falls into that category. (Hi there, super-rich person! Are you looking for a good cause?...
by Rhiannon Paine | Dec 3, 2011 | General, Signs of the Times
It takes a spy to catch a spy. That’s how developer Trevor Eckhart found a “mole” application that’s installed on smartphones, can’t be turned off, and logs the numbers you dial, the URLs you visit, even the content of your text messages. Less logging is done for...