Month: February 2011
-
Big Box
It’s another post about the big plywood box I’m building in the basement! I keep adding to it even though I haven’t brought it to your attention in quite a while. If I had, the posts would have looked something like this: It’s a big box. It’s a bigger box. It’s an even bigger box.… Read.
-
Candy and Ronnie
“What’s the matter with him?” read the very enigmatic text-message from my brother, in response to no text message I’d sent him. I don’t text much. I don’t have anything against texting; I even like to do it; but there’s almost never been a time that I felt I had to whip out a text… Read.
-
Black Screen of Death
Drivel HQ went on the blink the other day while I was listening to tunes on Pandora and hammering away at some lumber in the far corner of the basement. Putting down the hammer, I trotted over to the computer and jogged the mouse around on the table top. Nothing. Batted at the keyboard a… Read.
-
Do Not Phone
So awfully glad it’s Friday. Not for the usual reasons, though. I spent the last four days on the telephone returning calls from three-hundred customers who called in a panic when they received a letter from our office that told them how to report their continuing education courses when they renewed, only they thought it… Read.
-
Genius
When it sucks to be a Genius: John Fitch, a mechanic, without education or wealth, but with the energy of genius, invented engine and paddles of his own, with so much success that during a whole summer Philadelphians watched his ferryboat plying daily against the river current. No one denied that his boat was rapidly,… Read.
-
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
It’s so cold tonight that the house won’t stop cracking and popping. Our bedroom’s in a corner of the house that’s far, far away from the furnace and gets pretty cold between times that the burners fire off and the blower cranks up. I don’t know if that’s got anything to do with it, but… Read.
-
The Ladies
Saith the Duc de Liancourt, writing in 1797: … it must be acknowledged that the beauty of the American ladies has the advantage in the comparison [to European ladies]. The young women of Philadelphia are accomplished in different degrees, but beauty is general with them. They want the ease and fashion of French women, but… Read.
-
princess phone p
Dear Members of the Public: I know we in the service industry aren’t supposed to lecture you or complain about you, because the customer is always right and so on, and for the most part I can work with that, but I feel the need to vent on just one subject. I’ll only bring it… Read.
-
Boots
I was waiting in the parking lot of the hotel for a lift into town from the air base where I was staying. I’d been hiking through the countryside of southwest England all week, but was taking some time off to hang around town, browse the book stores and pick up a few knick-knacks for… Read.
-
Loafing
The ESPN announcer who called the play-by-play of the Super Bowl on the radio yesterday had some interesting quirks. He was all about “hash marks,” for instance. Every play ended “right on the hash mark,” or “in between the hash marks.” If we’d made a drinking game out of every time he said “hash marks”… Read.
This Is Drivel 