I haven't posted much in ages, and very few of the crowd that comprised my friends are posting more than sporadically, either. The implication is clear. It was truly a privilege to get to know you folks, and I wish you all well. Ave atque vale.

Two in one day!

Kucinich will support Obama health overhaul

Court: Pa. DA can't bring 'sexting' charges

The stars must have been just right for two such retreats on the stupidity front.

Kind of hibernating. 2009 is going to go down as a year in which I did not do much.

Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing when you consider what lots of other people did in the past year. I did not get my car stuck on a railroad track because that's where my GPS told me to turn. I did not get any tattoos with the potential to embarrass me later ( Read more... )

One week ago today, my brother became a first-time father in his early 50s. I have not been optimistic about what this might do to his delightfully sardonic and irreverent personality ( Read more... )

About a week ago, a friend and former co-worker wrote a very moving entry on her blog sparked by hearing a particular song from the early 1960s. She went from noting that this was the first 45 single that she ever bought, to a vivid and poignant description of growing up poor in the rural Midwest.

Today, in Second Life, my character was dancing at a ( Read more... )

Just received a message from a friend with some very busy grandkids. Here's an excerpt, transcribed verbatim:
...then we came home to a baton rectal, 2 gymnastics recitals, a first communion and a confirmation that weekend...

I would gladly go to the gymnastics program, and I'd attend the communion and confirmation if I had to, but leave me out of ( Read more... )

... my last words will be a hearty Fuck you! to everyone who chirps, "Well, I LIKE snow!" when I mention we're expecting another eight inches overnight.

And in the fashion of her generation, she's putting it all online.

This is a young lady I've known for about ten years.  She began working as a volunteer for our park as a young teenager, and very quickly impressed everyone on the staff with her intelligence and her work ethic.  We watched her grow, graduate from high school as class valedictorian, ( Read more... )

The fire stories coming out of Australia are especially gripping to anyone familiar with the history of the upper Midwest, a region that historian Stephen Pyne called a "tinderbox" around the end of the nineteenth century. Though the 1871 Peshtigo holocaust may have been the worst, killing some 1,200 people in and around the Wisconsin mill town, ( Read more... )

Putting things in perspective:

Don McLean's American Pie was number one on the singles charts in January, 1972.

That was thirteen years after the Clear Lake plane crash.

It's been thirty-seven years since American Pie.

Now don't I feel old...