Memories of Florida
Ah. Memories of Florida. Building Collapses in Miami on June 24, 2021 After a lifetime of watching movies about the romance of living next to the ocean, I once spent 2 years in Florida. My memories of Florida are somewhat different than those of Johnnie Mathis. It was more like living in a front load washer than a romantic walk alone on a pristine beach silent except for the soft […]
Depressed for No Good Reason
Well, not exactly depressed for no good reason. It’s the fifty-first day of my shelter-in-place sojourn and I finished reading Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America this morning. As a specialist, Kendzior explains the development of autocracies and kleptocracies and chronicles all the steps in Donald Trump’s rise to power. Good book but not an upper. Hiding in Plain Sight is written the […]
Coronavirus Counting Game, Watching the News
Watching the News Coronavirus Counting Game It will make watching the news worth it when there isn’t any. Which journalists have books on their walls? Or paintings? Or photographs? Or certificates? How many books by Stephen King can you count? By Rachel Maddow? About Trump? How many mix fiction and nonfiction? New and old? And do you see any old books? Percentage of unadorned white walls to bookshelves? Are certificates framed, […]
Comprehending Time, Passing Through a Wall
Explaining to a seven-year-old how to tell when 5 hours had passed, I pointed to the clock. No, she said. I know how to tell time, but I don’t comprehend it. How long is it? What can I do in five hours? I was almost 70 then and I couldn’t comprehend time either. Hours, yes. But I was in the decades. How long my life had been—how long anything […]
Demographic Data Source
City-data.com is a not too cluttered easy to use comprehensive source of demographic data for cities in the United States. Interactive maps. Links that work. Information on Schools, Neighborhoods, Assessments, Restaurants, and even Sex Offenders. By collecting and analyzing data from a variety of government and private sources, we’re able to create detailed, informative profiles for every city in the United States. From crime rates to weather patterns, you’ll find the […]
Your Ducks in a Row
As long as you have two or fewer, your ducks are always in a row.
The Covert Comic
On the problem of school library visits being limited to 3 books every 2 weeks when each book is finished in a day or two.
What I need are books that can survive me for two weeks.
Carolyn, age 8
After My Birthday
Today is the day after my birthday. I turned 70. I had planned to start daily entries partly because I had an artist friend who wrote a book on her 70th birthday and published it in the days when no one did that. There were no blogs or on-demand printing in the 1980s. I had been planning my big start for days. I missed it because I was watching YouTube […]