There are two kinds of people….Really?  Of the planet’s 7 billion people, can they really be divided into just two groups?  Apparently so according to some.  Here’s a short list I put together with help from Mr.… Read full post »

          The bad news on petroleum-based and other forms of non-renewable energy has long been thought to be that we’ll eventually run out of it.  After all, it’s non-renewable.  There’s a finite amount; hence Peak Oil.  W… Read full post »

          Worn out after the solidarity marches with the workers of the world?  Exhausted after the annual Morris dancing binge?  Maypoling is laying you low?  Then try this antidote.  It’s Julie Andrews from her sparking turn as… Read full post »

          I saw this when it came out in 1979 and still remember the quasi-Pythonesque warning at the theater – “This movie may be offensive to those with religious beliefs.”     Most of you have probably seen/… Read full post »

          Need a break from arguments and incipient dust-ups?  Exhausted from pondering the ontology of Obama?  Well here are some scattershot laughs which I’ll credit to Tink for inspiration with his article here.  His clip of that br… Read full post »

          He died yesterday from complications during an undisclosed but apparently non-serious surgery.  He was 68.

          I was far from his biggest fan, owning no albums and never having seen him liv… Read full post »

          Well this is one topic I never expected to write on.  Perhaps that’s a good thing?

          My own history features a few discomforting over-indulgences during my college years.  Eac… Read full post »

          I saw it recently and while it was quite engrossing, I found that the scene-to-scene continuity was at times choppy and the inclusion of some episodes seemed arbitrary and tangential to the main story line.  For example, there’s a bit… Read full post »

            Some of you may have seen this already.

Open Salon is a community that uses the OS website to stay in touch with a core group of people who enjoy writing and discussing all kinds of topics. We, the writers, are the community;… Read full post »

          Something frivolous for Sunday, inspired by Margaret Feike’s recent post here.

           It didn’t take us long to come up with that name.  It was the mid-70s, school term was e… Read full post »

            This is inspired by Tom Cordle’s post on why progressives should vote for Obama, Koshersalaami’s challenging third party voters to justify their choices and skypixie’s on the logic of voting.  It’s also a… Read full post »

            Some light Sunday stuff here.  I’ve seen a few comments about about Paul Ryan’s over-sized suit at the RNC.  Here’s a pic:

      &nbs… Read full post »

Well life on the kib-butz is kinda laid back
Ain’t nothing that a city boy like me can’t hack
Excepting a P.L.O. mortar attack,
Thank God I’m a kibbutz boy

There were a few more verses but that’s all that’s left in the memory banks.  On/… Read full post »

         I was going to write about my time on a kibbutz but the getting there was taking too long so I’ve broken it up.  It also seemed prudent to get this into print while my memory is somewha… Read full post »

          I stumbled on this one a few days ago.  It asks a bunch of multiple choice questions covering most major policy issues.  Well, that’s what you’d expect, no?… Read full post »

          I like advice columns but seldom like the advisors.  Growing up I was a fan of Ann Landers.  A decade or two later it was Miss Manners.  Then there was a long gap until I foun… Read full post »

          I had a road trip that lasted nearly a decade and this was the first of my posts about it.

          A bunch of the boys was whooping it up at the Malamute Saloon.  Well, not quite, excep… Read full post »

          Just because I didn’t buy into the view that the mysterious origin of the universe and all existence, like our own, could be explained by positing some creative being whose own existence just had to be accepted with no questions asked, does… Read full post »

          This covers some ground I blogged about a couple of years ago here.  When I was younger I felt a near-compulsion to list things – favorite movies, 10 best actresses etc.  So of course I would have come up with something for a favo… Read full post »

          I got the idea for this post from a recent one by Saturn Smith on Game Change – the story of Sarah Palin’s misadventures as VP candidate.  I’ll see it soon enough but it reminded me of three excellent miniseries, all of the… Read full post »

Some hacker pals were able to come up with Santorum’s list.

1. Your main trait:  Righteous indignation.

2. The quality you like best in a man:  Heterosexuality

3. The quality you like best in a woman:  Heterosexuality.  And a strong affinity for housewifery.
… Read full post »

          I’d read a few recent posts on a police state under Obama.  The case in favor rests on examples like the killing of al-Awlaki, the continuation of Guantanamo, drone attacks, the harsh incarceration of Bradley Manning, an increase in es… Read full post »

          I still have to give my head a shake in realizing my blogiversary coincides with Valentine’s Day.  And that’s about as deeply as I want to delve into that coincidence.

          I lo… Read full post »

          At least that’s what I thought they’d be called.  But they were nowhere to be seen on the menu.

          It was the 80s and I was in Amsterdam.  Of course I was no stranger to… Read full post »

          I’d blogged before about my 70s hair style.  With straight blond hair it wound up like Rick Wakeman’s.

                    %I… Read full post »