The last time I read a lot of 1930s Golden Age English mysteries, I ended up writing one in my sleep. I'm awake now, so there’s no excuse for this one. Still, let’s press on. Our story begins outside a village church, after Sunday service, as Hector Spector (the...
“There is nothing like being hanged in a fortnight to concentrate the mind,” wrote Samuel Johnson. Or, as he might also have written, “There is nothing like having your house on a Historic Homes Tour to send you repeatedly to Home Depot.” On Sunday, May 15, about 450...
After watching the new Harry Potter movie this weekend, a friend asked me why Harry, Ron, and Hermione, while on the run from Snarly Bad Things, kept apparating -- moving about magically -- within the British Isles. All the Snarly Bad Things were UK-based, so why...
That quotation fluttered into my mind as I read an article about TSA agents groping U.S. airline passengers, including a terrified three-year-old girl. What, I wondered, does TSA stand for? Tactile Searchers Association? Touchers & Strokers Anonymous? My...
I’m about to go vote in today’s U.S. election and as usual I’m getting a bit weepy. And it's not because, as I consider some of the candidates, I realize I’d rather vote for a dead weasel. It's because I start thinking about Martin Luther King and the Freedom Riders,...
My more evolved friends have sometimes suggested that I “get in touch with my inner child.” To which I've replied: “If my inner child has anything to say, she can get in touch with me. Preferably by email.” But most of the year, my encapsulated offspring is silent....