Oxford just sent me a box of twenty books. Each one has my name on the spine of the dust jacket.

Opening the box was a gratifying moment. And then I was reminded of Henry David Thoreau, whose first book didn't sell many copies. He wrote, "I have now a library… Read full post »

In the spirit of Cranky Cuss's account of self-publishing (Part I and Part II), I thought I'd write about my experience with a traditional non-fiction publisher. Not about writing the book, but about the process that surrounds the writing. This turns into an answer to the question, "Who moves a book/… Read full post »

I've been reading some of the unhappy reactions from Republicans about the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare. There's a silver lining for  John Boehner at least; no one on his side is in danger of spiking the ball in celebration.

Here are a few of the reactions. The Supreme Co… Read full post »

Earlier this month David Barton, an evangelical Christian minister who has published several history books (most recently The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson, with a foreword by Glenn Beck), spoke on the topic of welfare. As quoted by rig… Read full post »

 (recycled image)

You may already know that I have a weakness for the supernatural, in children's literature, in movies, and in fiction. (Not in reality, of course.)  When summer rolls around, I unwind with books that are good or even just okay, and I try to avoid books tha… Read full post »

Glen Kessler, on his Washington Post Fact Checker blog, compares the job creation records of President Obama and Governor Romney over their times in office. His conclusion:

The similarities are actually more striking than the differences. 

Coincidentally, I've been looking at unemployme… Read full post »

Credit: O.KIRK, on panoramio.com

A foulard cerise gladiolus.
Torsion.
Asceticism and deteriorating luxuriance.
Albumen.

Am I stretching my writing wings, trying out a bit of poetry? Not really. The last line probably tells you that something different is going on.

Fourteen-year-old Snigdha Nandi… Read full post »

Is it worthwhile to vote in the Presidential election this coming November? I think so. Every four years, usually in the fall, you can read economic and decision theoretic arguments about whether voting is a rational act.¹ Those arguments are fine for the mathematically inclined, b/… Read full post »

When I was much younger I loved to read books about how to do magic. Not real magic, of course; mainly card tricks.¹ I practiced doing passes, side slips, palms, and other basic sleights for hours on end. Today all that's survived of whatever skills I learned is a few card flo/… Read full post »

Last year I joined a planning committee, to replace a friend who was leaving.

"Can we still count on Frank?" asked Bill. Frank had been responsible for some of our work for the past several years.

"Yes," said Brad. "I'd like to get started a little earlier this year, so that… Read full post »

Tonight my wife and I were watching TV, and though my attention wanders during the commercial breaks, I caught the tail end of an ad for a dating site: FarmersOnly.com.  "What was that?" I said. "It must be a joke," my wife said. But it's real. From their web site: 

We… Read full post »

When someone asks me what I do for a living, I say, "I'm a college professor." If there's any further interest (usually the eyes have already glazed over) I say that I'm in a computer science department and I work on human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. This all might sound rather… Read full post »

I've been arrested just once in my life. I wasn't charged, and I was released after a couple of hours. So this wasn't a life-changing experience. It just means that when filling out forms for employment and security clearances (I worked in the defense industry for several years), I have to… Read full post »

Forthcoming this fall from Oxford University Press

So you've written a book. What should you call it?

Tough question. Two years ago I submitted a proposal to Oxford for a book titled Computational Thinking.

My editor liked it. (She suggested that I resubmit a proposal for two books, one purel/… Read full post »

Rush Limbaugh:

What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex--what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. 

[Later:] ...In this instance, I chose… Read full post »