All Purls. No Swine.
He was the biggest--in every sense of the word--dog who's ever owned me. Big of size, big (well, reasonably big) of brain, big of spirit, but most of all, big of heart. Levi's long, and very good, run came to an end this morning. He'd been having increasing trouble hauling his 150lb frame to its… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale: The Greatest Pyrenees
Oh well. Lord only knows, when you're as old as I am, somewhere on the shady side of your seventh decade on this earth (for those of you in Rio Linda, that means I'm in my mid-to-late 60s--deal with it), you must take life as you find it, and celebrate your victories--no matter how minor… Continue reading Adventures in Chicken Brain
Prompted by a brief side conversation on a Ricochet post earlier this week from member BDB about his Microsoft Surface Pro in which BDB, Henry Racette and I all deplored, in one fashion or another, the tendency to replace useful instructions and text with the sometimes baffling icons and graphics that–sometimes alone–comprise most “installation manuals,”… Continue reading Use Your Words–Please!
Some things never change. On 25th October 1854, during the Battle of Balaclava, 670 British soldiers under the command of Lord Cardigan, launched an ill-fated attack upon a well-defended Russian artillery battery and sustained 40 percent casualties in the form of approximately 120 killed, and at least 160 wounded. Fifty were taken prisoner. Also killed… Continue reading “Theirs But To Do and Die”
Anyone who reads at all diversely during these bizarre 1920s cannot escape the conclusion that a number of crazy men and women are writing stuff which remarkably passes for important composition among certain persons who should know better--James Thurber on Gertrude Stein Bless. I don't know enough about Thurber to speculate on what he said,… Continue reading Happy Birthday, James Thurber
President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks the United States Congress to declare that a state of war now exists between the United States of America and the Japanese Empire: https://youtu.be/lK8gYGg0dkE On this eightieth anniversary, then U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class David Russell, now 101 years old, revisits Pearl Harbor for the service commemorating those who… Continue reading December 7, 1941: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
https://youtu.be/WKu6HFrtpkM (Apologies for the rather tinny and reedy audio. Entirely my fault. It was a spontaneous reaction, emotion not a bit recollected in tranquility (h/t William Wordsworth). I used the voice recorder of my iPhone, and I was w-a-a-y in the back of the audience. I just wanted you to hear my neighbors and friends, children… Continue reading Hallelujah! Our Long, Dark, Winter Night is Over!
The dreadnought battleship was an iconic technology in the first half of the twentieth century. Nations poured millions into their construction. Despite – or perhaps because of – the money spent building them, they were rarely used. Clash of the Capital Ships: From the Yorkshire Raids to Jutland, by Eric Dorn Brose, presents one period… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter–Dreadnoughts at War
Dearest Readers, A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the images I carefully select and attach to my posts to provide what is (in my own mind) a "great page experience" (together with the indefinite article) for those of you who are kind enough to read them, weren't appearing properly, if at all. Life… Continue reading “An Easier Path to great Page Experience [sic] For Everyone”–NOT! Describing a WordPress Fail
God gave us memories that we might have roses in December–J.M. Barrie It’s a lovely sentiment, isn’t it? Unfortunately, not all our memories come up roses (pace Ethel Merman): https://youtu.be/s62MrU8mHx4 and our memory gardens inevitably include thorns, thistles, poison ivy, and an abundance of other nasty weeds we encountered at some point in the horticultural… Continue reading Roses in December