Month: December 2010
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A Different Boy
Robert Goddard was the father of American rocketry, or maybe something more like the crazy uncle. Like Tsiolkovsky in Russia and von Braun in Germany, he not only cobbled together working rockets, he was inspired by a compelling inspiration to fly to other planets, which was crazy talk in his day, and I mean people… Read.
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Memory-free
I have no idea where I was or what I was doing the night I heard John Lennon died. I remember seeing plenty of television news stories with video of people weeping and lighting candles, but when I try to recall the first time I heard about it, I just can’t. It simply didn’t make… Read.
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Bloodshot
After a scalding hot shower and a hot cuppa java, I think I may once again return to the class of warm-blooded creatures. Last night was about five million years long and it was all because the cat in the middle of the bed kept hogging the covers, keeping me awake most of the night.… Read.
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Blearrrgh!
Bluh! Bluh! Bluh! Blearrrrgh! That’s how our oldest cat said “Good morning!” to me at four o’clock in the morning today. I’m in bed at four o’clock in the morning. I had been sleeping, up until the cat began singing his gastric antilullabye. That kind of thing tends to wake me right up, though, and… Read.
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foe ODD, HOTCH!
Grant Barrett started off this morning’s episode of A Way With Words with a tribute to train conductors and the singsong way they rounded up passengers lingering on the platform by calling out the names of the stops along the way, something like, “Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!” wrapping it up with the still-familiar, “bo-AAAAHHHd!” Grant… Read.
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Snowfall
The snow came, just like they said it would, but it didn’t stop us from going to the farmer’s market just the same as we do almost every Saturday. It came close to stopping us, if only because My Darling B didn’t have any boots to wear, just her regular street shoes, but since the… Read.
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Nit Picking
Okay, there’s a scene in the new Star Trek movie that I don’t get because it’s got about forty thousand discontinuities in it that didn’t hit me while I was watching it. It was a lot of fun to watch. I just loved it. But later my brain rewinded it and every time I watched,… Read.
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The Vaseline Story
Dad was mowing the grass in the back yard. My brother Pete and I were working on something in the garage with the back door open. Dad was about as far away across the back yard as he could get when suddenly the growl of the lawnmower engine died and was replaced just moments after… Read.
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First Snow
Woke up this morning to see the first snow that fell overnight and stuck. It made My Darling B cry a little tear. So now it’s really winter. I know that the solstice is supposed to be really winter, but everybody knows it’s the first snow. Solstice is when the days start getting longer and… Read.
This Is Drivel 