“Newt threatens to skip debates if crowds can’t cheer” -- headline “Gosh!” you’re probably thinking. “A new low in the history of American public figures! No one could possibly have been more childish and unprincipled than Newt Gingrich.” And I would agree with you,...
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,...
As my website designer keeps reminding me, this site’s been “open” for more than a month now. But I've kept quiet about it because, what with starting a new job and moving from a converted barn into a cottage, I haven’t had time to write this entry. Nor do I have time...