Johnny Bench. Somebody asked me who Johnny Bench was today. Major League catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, 1968-1983, according to some the best catcher of all time. “I want to win, but there’s the grind. There’s so much responsibility for a catcher…My arm feels good. My legs will be all right. How long will I […]

The Hitler vs. Coulter Quiz. Now, while I do not back liberals wholesale (liberal doesn’t have a dang thing to do with compassionate), I am always quick to despise current conservative leadership. Maybe it’s a knee-jerk reaction, but there you go. That having been said, I had fun amusing myself with the Hitler vs. Coulter

Night Watch. I got Lee the Russian horror film Night Watch yesterday. He’s watching it as I type. He just said, “If you were going to write a Russian horror movie, this would be it.” Which, from other comments he’s made, is a compliment. I’ll have to watch it later…

Write what you know; know thyself. I’ve been thinking about the old adage “write what you know,” which, for the purposes of today’s mental tangent, shall mean “write what you love.” Because really, why would you expect anyone to love something you wrote if you don’t? If you’re writing something according to someone else’s opinion

Baxter Black, Cowboy Poet. I recommend Baxter Black’s recent commentary on NPR, “Why Not a Court of Average People?“ “The only big word [in the Constitution] is ‘enumeration.’”–Baxter Black.

Alas! US loses to Ghana in the World Quidditch Soccer Finals. I am easily amused.

Suspicious Activity. I brought a book to work with me the other day, called Ancient Tales in Modern Japan, selected and translated by Fanny Hagin Mayer. Sure enough, as I sat down to read it in the cafeteria during lunch, one of the security guys stopped by to ask me what I was reading and

Blah. Our house is full of sniffly people. Good thing the selfish urge to whine is counterbalanced by the urge to take care of people, or this might be a pretty grim household right now. “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a

Untitled Haiku. After that last postI should try writing somethingDeep. Yeah, whatever.

O Happy Stuff! The life of a fledgling freelance writer is often, surprisingly, dull and tedious. I try to stay away from that aspect of things, but sometimes it can’t be helped. Oh, you’re doing something you love, but it can lack that spark that purely creative writing possesses. Then come the days when you