Author: admin

I’ve been called for jury duty. I’ve served before, and I consider it a privilege. Not an unmitigated privilege, of course – waiting around, transportation woes, more waiting, making sure my hearing aids have sufficient battery, wait some more, and then argue with five or eleven other people about what we heard and what it…

Why do businesses hector users with subscription requests when they already subscribe? Case in point #1: I subscribe – as in pay money – to NPR+. Part of the pitch for NPR+ podcasts is that subscribers don’t have to listen to ads. Yet on both Planet Money and Short Wave podcasts this morning, they shoved…

I was just trying to clean my jacket, and I saw this stuff sitting on the tub. I mean, clean coats, right? Maybe not…

When The Pogues’ “first” album – Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash – was released in 1985, I was blown away by the raw energy of their sound. The band was led by Shane MacGowan, whose death was announced today, and who at the time was recognized as much for his bad teeth as his music.…

Sixty years ago today. November 22, 1963. Anyone who is, say, sixty-eight or older knows where they were that afternoon. (I was in class. Ninth grade, I think.) Some dates just stick in the mind. June 6, 1944. September 11, 2001. And November 22, 1963. Supposedly, the original lyrics were “…who killed Jack Kennedy.” But…

This is a turkey: This is a turkey on drugs: Any questions? And just because: This is a turkey vulture. This is turkey-on-turkey crime. (Well, turkey-vulture-on-turkey crime.) And this is me after eating too much Thanksgiving turkey:

Biglaw Associates Victimized By Anti-Semitic Attack On Bus – Above the Law The invaluable Above the Law tells this horrifying story of yet another incident of rising anti-Semitism. There are two sides to a lot of issues, and often more than two. There are not two sides to hate. Period.

Strange Weather is: a) A great Tom Waits song. (I’d link to it, except that YouTube these days has so many ads* that links are simply annoying to the point of being nearly nonfunctional.) b) A great Tom Waits song made possibly even better by Marianne Faithful’s cover (as above, re linking). c) What’s been…

I’ve posted the opening chapters of three recent novels: The Precise Man, a novel of 1604 London, co-starring a certain playwright named Will. #TaurusTempleLives, a satire of the music industry. A loving satire… mostly. (Is that “mostly loving” or “mostly satire”? Um… yes to both.) The Beeline, a humorous novel about a lost fortune, a…

Okay, so I haven’t been posting much recently. Here’s what’s up. The fecal stew formerly known as Twitter. I know I should be active there. I just… can’t. Totally discouraging. Maybe Threads will emerge victorious… or at least interesting. Though I gotta say, Zuck and Musk in a cage fight would like the 1919 Chicago…