Wal-mart haters will like this, I suppose. No, I haven’t exactly joined you. As I’ve pointed out before, out here where we don’t have mile after mile of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s and other acceptable retailers, shopping at Wal-mart is not a choice; it’s a part of life. But I am thinking I should stop buying [...]

Yesterday was International Wear a Dress Day. Oops. I missed it. I probably wouldn’t have worn a dress even if I had known. I wear dresses in the summer and sometimes on “special occasions” other times of the year but I’ve thought about buying some tights and occasionally wearing a dress in the winter “just [...]

This is bizarre. It must be a joke. Some Chinese designer is sitting over there having a good laugh about how he or she confused the Americans and kept us up at night wondering what the heck that zipper is for.

To put it as simply as possible, I’ve sought to write a narrative biography of Louis Armstrong that is comparable in seriousness, scope, and literary quality to a “definitive” high-culture biography of a great novelist–or a great classical composer. Very few popular-music biographies have aspired to that kind of standard, but it seems obvious to [...]

It’s dark and gloomy out this morning. For a little bit the sky was that odd yellow-gray color you see sometimes, casting a weird, gold-green light on the world but it’s looking a little more “normal” now. Checked the weather and there’s a line of thunderstorms stretched north and south all the way across Oklahoma. [...]

I have recently run into a tragic side effect of the Earth Friendly movement. I have long been in the habit of giving my freshly emptied tuna cans to my cats as a treat but the local stores no longer have tuna in small cans. I don’t buy the large cans because I’m the only [...]

I’m still on my treasure trove of Andre Norton. I have been procrastinating on this so long I’ve read five and a half books since my last Andre Norton post. I guess I should title this “The Andre Norton Discussion, Part II” but since there wasn’t any discussion on part one it felt too ironic. [...]

I just got a message from Flickr telling me that I am nearing my 200 photo limit and inviting me to upgrade to Flickr Pro. Darn. I originally signed up for Flickr to avoid using up all my webspace on photos. I knew there had to be a limit but since I’ve never come anywhere [...]

Saw this quote on Now That’s Nifty: Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart,” all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart.” * * * * * And then there’s this from the same site: Researchers from the University of Toledo have reported the first ever case [...]

When I was a little kid I probably had even more eclectic taste in music than I have now. I think that’s pretty normal for kids. When you’re six years old it’s all just music. My dad was one of those “I like both kinds of music, country and western” kind of people so I [...]

A while back I complained that I couldn’t find a pattern for elastic waist pants with the right kind of pockets – that is, normal pants pockets, not side seam pockets. I finally found one. It’s a scrubs pattern. I expected the pants to be too baggy and they are but that will be easier [...]

I made these pumpkin cookies this afternoon. They’re okay but not great. I used canned pumpkin and I think the recipe was probably designed for cooked fresh pumpkin with a much thicker consistency than canned, even though it says you can use canned. I followed the recipe and the “dough” was actually closer to the [...]

Three irresistible posts on English Russia: Matte Paintings – Fantastic! These are movie backgrounds. Some of them look like fantasy paintings. Windows – Beautiful! Thanks to English Russia and I am starting to really love old Russian architecture. The details! I wish I could buy one of these houses and have it moved to my [...]

Brian gives career advice: If you want to make money as a novel-writer, then here is my career advice: get a job, and write in your spare time, following the above plan (i.e. buying the above quite cheap literary lottery ticket). That way, you will make money as a novelist, although I agree not in [...]

There’s something about this photo. The two girls look so old. I know that back then it was not customary to smile for photos as it is today but there’s more to it than that. They look old. What must it have been like? Being that young and having to work all day and knowing [...]

I was going to mention this Literature Map (found here) but I forgot all about it until just a couple of minutes ago. You type in the name of an author you like and it shows you other authors you might like. The closer the names the more similar the authors’ styles. It’s no surprise [...]

It’s good to be careful, but there’s a point at which you have to say, Stop, we cannot bubble-wrap the entire world. — here What fools these language moralists be! — there It’s a pity that “epicure” and “epicurean” have become more or less synonyms for gourmet – elite ostentatious foodyism – as this is [...]

[Talking to self] You do not need any more clothes right now; just stop looking at fabric; stop, stop, stop… Shut up. I’ve gotta have this fabric. And the other fabric in the picture at the bottom of that post. Thanks a lot, Charles! UPDATE: Darn. The ruler fabric is out of stock.

Possibly the best Halloween costume ever! That picture is actually from the Calgary Zombie Walk, October 17 and 18 but that costume would be great for Halloween. The shirt needs to be a little redder though.

I dreamed about Dark Shadows. Sort of. The dream was about two children, a boy and a girl. They were beautiful, blond children and much nicer and more well-behaved than any real world children. I didn’t know who they were, but after a while I somehow knew that the little girl’s name was Victoria Winters. [...]

In a study at MIT… Volunteers were asked to identify fifty famous faces, including that of former U.S. president Richard Nixon and actor Winona Ryder. The photos were digitally altered and shown either without eyebrows or without eyes. When celebrities lacked eyes, subjects could recognize them nearly 60 percent of the time. However, when celebrities [...]

Here are three more photos from our Saturday trip on Talimena Scenic Drive. There are many walking trails (and bike trails and equestrian trails) along the drive. We got out and took a walk on one. This was in the Kerr Botanical Area near the eastern end of the drive. This particular trail was a [...]

Political partisans can be so amusing! Not to leave anyone out but at the moment the “Conservatives” are the ones who are amusing me the most. I’ve noticed that Conservatives are generally big fans of the Tenth Amendment or at least they always bring that up whenever Liberals or moderates in Congress want to pass [...]