Masks as Theatre ?
A recent blog comment claimed masks, especially cloth masks, were only “theatre.” That’s simply not true, and you can prove it yourself… but first a few basics. A cough can travel as fast as 50 mph and...
View ArticleThe Lottery…
Shirley Jackson’s famous story – “The Lottery” – is a horror tale about how a town chooses who periodically gets killed for reasons they have long since forgotten. The victim protests that the choosing...
View ArticleExactly What Was That All About?
The other day I read a “guest” editorial in The Salt Lake Tribune, a moderately liberal paper that’s won a lot of awards for journalism. The editorial was fairly well-written, but I had no idea what...
View ArticleMoney, Technology…and the Complexity Problem
The other day, I realized that I needed to change some details on a bank account and to switch to another class of account. While the representatives with whom I talked were knowledgeable and helpful,...
View ArticleThe Sacred “Me”
Right now, it seems as though not a day passes before there’s not another news story about some form of protest against wearing a mask. A number of people have been shot, and some have been killed, for...
View ArticleEveryone Knows What a Story/Novel Is
One definition of a novel is “a long narrative work of fiction with some realism, often in prose form, and published as a single book.” Another is “any extended fictional narrative in prose that...
View ArticlePolitical Manners
Once upon a time, that is to say before June 16, 2015, while the major party candidates for President played rough and took liberties with the truth, those liberties usually consisted of telling...
View ArticleThe Little S**t
These days, almost all of us face not only the principal requirements of our occupation, but also all sorts of little chores and duties, both at work and at home, and I’ve noticed that most people take...
View Article“Unpronounceable” and Other Names
Every so often, I get a reader comment about my “unpronounceable” names, and I don’t know whether to be amazed, irked, or just disappointed, because every name in every one of my books is perfectly...
View ArticleHow the Democrats Lose the Election
The biggest reason why the Democrats could, and likely will, lose the election [unless they change their campaign tactics] is that they’ve forgotten the basics. The election isn’t about money; it’s not...
View ArticleThoughts on Poetry
The Tor/Forge Blog has just published a post where I talk about poetry in various books of mine. The link is Once a Poet
View ArticleDenial Culture
One of the biggest reasons why Congress is deadlocked on everything, why the major political parties are polarized, and why people are at each other’s throats over politics and national policies is, in...
View ArticleComment Translations
Every once in a while, I read comments by readers, which my wife insists I shouldn’t, but, because I’m a glutton of sorts for punishment, I do. The words on the left are what the reader wrote. My...
View ArticleFuture Publishing?
Over the last several years, I’ve certainly read and heard a great deal of speculation about the future of publishing and books. When ebooks were first introduced, some viewed them as a trendy but...
View ArticleArticle 1
Canadian author Edward Willett has been hosting a podcast entitled “World Shapers,” and earlier this year asked the authors he hosted in the first year if they’d contribute a story to an anthology...
View ArticleLow Minimum Wage = Business Welfare
In 1968, the average annual poverty income level ($3,410) for a family of four was almost exactly what a minimum wage worker could earn in a year of full time work. Today, given inflation, the average...
View ArticleCost-Effective Incompetence?
In this time of Covid-19, I suspect more than a few of us are ordering items for delivery. In order to be able to get better ventilation while teaching singing, my wife the voice professor needed two...
View ArticleThe Cubage Racket
I’ve used UPS to ship overnight or two-day packages for years… but not any longer, not after a rather “interesting” encounter. My wife the professor, who’s been overwhelmed by the combination of the...
View ArticleThin-Skinned and Angry
Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, all societies and all religions have faults. Now, for too many privileged individuals in any society, what this translates to is that every society and every...
View ArticlePayback/Karma?
The latest phase of the coronavirus pandemic is just beginning, and it’s becoming very obvious here in whitebread Utah. The case numbers have skyrocketed in the last week with the total number of cases...
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