Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,176 entries, all of them here in full.
September 25, 2007 · 1,308 words
Music, Ho
This past weekend was Globalquerque, a two-day music festival on the grounds of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. They had three stages going at once, along with a little tent city featuring arts, crafts, and food. The three-stages-at-once concept is ideal in theory, but in practice it means you miss two-thirds of
Read entry →September 21, 2007 · 96 words
Knickers in a Twist
“Your client, Shaker Aamer, detainee ISN 239, was recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit . . . “Thus begins a letter from Commander [Redacted], inquiring as to whether the lawyer for Mr. Aamer, a Guantanamo detainee, had smuggled him illegal underwear. (Commander [Redacted] has a
Read entry →September 20, 2007 · 62 words
Y’all Come
Like the handsome picture says, I’ll be participating in the Authors’ Symposium in the Jemez Valley High School Auditorium in Canon, NM on Saturday the 29th. The Jemez Valley features craggy natural beauty, hot springs, the Soda Dam, Roman Catholic and Buddhist monks, and the Jemez Indians. We’ll probably be the least
Read entry →September 20, 2007 · 53 words
Harbingers
It’s not a good sign when you open your door and discover three TV news helicopters circling your house.That’s what’s happening outside as I type this.I shall avoid answering the door tonight, lest I be confronted with a 60 Minutes camera crew or the bhoys from Homeland Security . . .
Read entry →September 19, 2007 · 160 words
To the Moon
NASA is recruiting the next generation of astronauts, to service the ISS and establish and staff our future moon base. Y’all have till July 1 to apply. The salary range is $59,493.00 to $130,257.00 per year “The open positions require extensive travel on Earth and in space. Possible destinations may include, but are no
Read entry →September 19, 2007 · 276 words
Robert Jordan
I knew Robert Jordan by his given name, Jim Rigney, though I didn’t know him well. His wife, Harriet McDougal, edited my second Tor book, and when they visited New Mexico in the mid-Eighties, Fred Saberhagen threw them a party. (Thus, in memory, do the dead play host to the dead.) I remember Jim told […]
Read entry →September 19, 2007 · 51 words
I Have a Cold
I have a cold. Again.It’s not a bad cold, as colds go, but it’s inconvenient, and it sucks away energy.This is something like the fifth cold I’ve had in the last eighteen months. I conclude that my immune system has gone to hell.Any home remedies I should try?
Read entry →September 15, 2007 · 339 words
Annihilation! Cool Flying Dudes! And other stories from the world of science . . .
Greg Frost has been keeping me up to date this week on the world o’ science, and it’s clear that science is becoming more skiffy than ever. First up— annihilation! A team including David Cassidy— who will be played in the movie by David Cassidy— has succeeded in merging di-positronium with ordinary po
Read entry →September 13, 2007 · 653 words
Truisms
I’ve been reading Imperium, by Robert Harris, a novel about the life of Cicero. It seems to cover the middle part of the great advocate’s career, from the prosecution of Gaius Verres to the conspiracy of Catalina. It leaves out Cicero’s rocky relationship with the First Triumvirate and his tutelage of Octavius, who lat
Read entry →September 9, 2007 · 160 words
Th.J for Fake
“I used to brag that I got the Thomas Jefferson wines,” hesaid. “Now I get to brag that I have the fake Thomas Jeffersonwines.” As a sometime stage magician, I enjoy a good sleight-of-hand. I like a colossal monstrous jape, a clever bit of illusion, and Orson Welles, both for his War of the Worlds […]
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