Author Archive
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
On the Bookshelf: American Lightning, by Howard Blum
I knew that battles between wealthy industrialists and labor forces during the late 19th and early 20th centuries were fierce. In my high school U.S. history class we talked about little else. But “American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, and the Birth of Hollywood” told a story that I had never heard before.
In 1910, the [...]
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Monday, March 1st, 2010
Holy punctuation, Batman!
This was the case with a 32-year-old Slovakian named Mitja Valencic – he set a breakneck pace, and was beautiful, but you could tell, watching him, in his ski suit, and really, these things are too damn tight, he knew it would not hold up.
There were many crack-ups, especially in the first heat: Bode [...]
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Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Random List #4 – Ways in Which the Winter Olympics are Better than Summer
Speed. In the Summer Olympics you’re pretty much limited to the speed at which humans can run or bicycle, but a bobsled travels at 90 miles an hour.
Danger. Summer has the marathon, during which you can drop dead. But Winter has the skeleton, luge, aerial skiing and guns.
Curling, which is totally something that you should [...]
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Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Well Said, Ted Arrington
My motto is ‘never pick a fight with the person who buys ink by the barrel.’ – Ted Arrington, professor at UNC-Charlotte.
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Friday, February 12th, 2010
Disaster Journalism
One month ago today, a devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. News agencies immediately descended on Port-au-Prince, jockeying to see who could show the most heart-rending story. This seems distasteful and exploitative to a lot of people, and I do understand their perspective. On the whole, though, I believe that without media coverage Haiti would [...]
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Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Audiobook update
I wrote about my love for audiobooks in 2007, but it’s long past time for an update. At last count I had 96 audiobooks on my iPod, which seems a bit much even to me.
I started out only listening to audiobooks while I was driving. It made long trips more bearable to have a [...]
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Friday, January 29th, 2010
Random List #3 – My Strangest Fears and Phobias
Puppets – This was especially a problem when I lived in Prague for three months. There are neighborhoods in Old Town where display after display of marionettes line the streets. It was really unnerving because, as everybody knows, puppets come to life at night and hang over your bed to watch you sleep.
Raccoons – It’s [...]
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Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
On the Bookshelf: Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde
It’s been a long, long time since last we met – and I’ve read many, many books. Let’s start this up again, shall we?
I’d like to start out by writing a little bit about the author of “Shades of Grey” and his prior works. I read Jasper Fforde*’s first book, “The Eyre Affair,” when it [...]
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Saturday, March 8th, 2008
On the Bookshelf: American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
There’s nothing more delightful than a book that makes me feel smart while I’m reading it.
I don’t mean in a “Oh my God, this is such simplistic writing” kind of way. More like “Hey, I totally recognize that obscure cultural/literary reference!” It’s why I like reading Jasper Fforde. It’s a reward for the vast amounts [...]
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Thursday, February 28th, 2008
On the Bookshelf: Seeing Me Naked, by Liza Palmer
My family is crazy – just like everyone else’s family. But there are books that remind me why I’m so grateful to have them. And this is one of them.
“Seeing Me Naked” is undoubtedly chick lit, but hey, I’m not a snob. I like chick lit, and this is a good example of when it [...]
