This Is Drivel

Category: daily drivel

  • The Cheapening of the Fourth Amendment

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    Get ready, I’m climbing up on my soapbox. Manually searching people in airports is wrong first and foremost because it’s a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Not because it’s a health hazard, not because it’s demeaning, not because it’s worthless security theater. Those are valid concerns and I agree with them, but searching people who… Read.

  • Wakey Wakey

    Why is sleeping in late so damned tiring? I don’t know when to get out of bed, and when I finally force myself I can’t make my ass move any faster than a … a really tired, slow thing that can’t stop yawning. Sorry, I’m still half-asleep as I write this drivel. I can get… Read.

  • Group Grope!

    It’s National Opt-Out Day! Organizers have set up a Facebook page and a web page to enlist the public’s help in protesting the the, what shall we call it, enhanced security techniques used by TSA. I can’t wait to see how this unfolds. While we’re waiting, here’s my growing collection of links to stories that… Read.

  • A Bird for a Bennie

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    I took almost the whole day off from work today because I was the only one in the family who still had enough time off from work this year to drive into the country to pick up the turkey. One of the bennies in my contract for employment is that I get thirty-six hours of… Read.

  • Little Squirt

    I found Boo sitting on the end of the dining room table when I turned on the lights this morning. She’s usually waiting for me there, couldn’t be more obvious about what she wanted if she had a bib and was propping up a knife and fork with each paw. And, usually, I snap my… Read.

  • A Dark Rain

    My Darling B and I were out for a walk in one of the swankier parts of town where the mansions were four and five stories tall. Densely built hip-to-hip along the street, they made a fortress-like ring around a city block a half-mile wide from street to street. The ground floor of every one… Read.

  • I See You

    My Darling B got tired of her laptop staring at her while she’s surfing food porn web sites. It’s got a little built-in camera at the top of the flip-up screen that she could use to take photos or record videos of herself if she were so inclined. Since she is most vehemently not, she… Read.

  • Pretty Good

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    I stuck my head in Laurie’s cube this afternoon to ask her if she could tell me the name of the tune that was playing on her radio. It turned out to be “Only Prettier” by Miranda Lambert. You’ll have to google that your darned self if you want to hear it. I was going… Read.

  • Dad Does Books

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    I found out the other day that a guy I know collects books as rabidly as I do, if that’s possible. He’s got bookshelves all over his house and apparently likes them as much for their smell as their looks or their content. And what sane human doesn’t? Well, lots, it turns out, but that’s… Read.

  • Extraction

    Sitting down at my desk this morning I happened to scratch my ear before doing anything else. I’ve got old man’s ears and something was tickling the hairs that grow around the lobe, making me dip a pinky finger quickly into the cleft between the lobe and whatever that knobby bit of cartilage is called… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend