Home is home, and everything else is not-home.” – Verlyn Klinkenborg, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE For most of us, home and hometown are synonymous. That wasn’t the case for me, at least not until recently. I’ve spent most of my holidays away…
Home (Bound) for the Holidays
There are a lot of things that we didn’t do this year so that we could do them next year. The only problem with that? Some of the people we would have done them with didn’t make it to next…
My Favourite Martians
November 28 is Red Planet Day. We’re not sure who noticed our carmine neighbor first. Galileo Galilei sighted it with a telescope in 16-something-or-other. One thing we can be certain about? Ares Mars Barsoom has held our attention ever since.…
Puzzling Past Polls, Pandemic
The United States Presidential Election of 2020 is over. Mostly. It is both 1856 and 1918 all over again. I work with some wicked smart people. We are watching our nation, our states, our friends, descend deeper and deeper into…
Shizuka ni gamba!
1987 It is 1987, six years after the animated cult classic Heavy Metal exited theatres. The up-and-comers of anime contribute to an anthology, Robot Carnival. In 2019 it is all but forgotten. Heavy Metal isn’t forgotten in 2019. That’s the…
Buck Up, Little Camper
At the start of the movie Jumanji: The Next Level, Danny DeVito opines “Getting old sucks. Don’t ever let anyone tell you any different.” By the end of the movie, his character Grandpa Eddie has a new perspective: Eddie :…
Epicycling Forward
Returning to my writing roots.
Right Matters
What’s fair isn’t always right. What’s right isn’t always fair. Strive for what is right. In 1958, only 6% of Americans felt interracial marriages were right. In 2013, more than 88% felt that way. Progress, right? 1967 marked two years…
To Experience Becoming
Writers regularly ask one question of other writers. Why do you write? Self-depreciating responses aside, I tend to confirmation bias the responses as “Because I cannot do otherwise.” Part of that is on me. I cannot remember not wanting to,…
Crossing the Streams
If you’re fortunate, you love what you do for a living. If you’re truly fortunate, you’ll do what you do for a living… with geeks. A co-worker in my current digs knows that if they send a certain email, within…