Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 272 entries, all of them here in full.
September 26, 2009 · 389 words
Nyckelharpa
I’ve been off at Globalquerque, Albuquerque’s weekend festival of global music. One way of describing this kind of festival is to describe the music I was listening to. (I’ll probably get around to that later.)Another is to just make a list of the weird and/or unusual instruments encountered for the first time.The firs
Read entry →September 25, 2009 · 712 words
Bonnie Brings the Winter
The other night we checked out the BonTaj Roulet tour, featuring Bonnie Raitt and Taj Majal, in the relatively intimate settings of the Sandia Casino Amphitheater— 2000 people in an open-air venue, with glorious views of the mountains. Whatever else you may say about Indian casinos, they have sure built a lot of
Read entry →September 23, 2009 · 107 words
Origin of Stupidity
Brainless religious zealot-zombies, led by Former Somebody Kirk Cameron, are going to be distributing copies of Darwin’s Origin of Species FREE just before this year’s Darwin Day, November 22. The book will be altered to include a 50-page denunciation of the theory of evolution by some Darwin-denying whackjob. Cameron
Read entry →September 23, 2009 · 173 words
Turn the Apple Green
Murderous baby-killing Holocaust-denying nutjob Iranian President Ahmedinejad is in the Big Apple today, to give what will doubtless prove to be an inept, rambling, psychotic, Holocaust-denying speech to the UN General Assembly. (To avoid being Chavezed again, our own President Obama will be hiding in the men’s room ti
Read entry →September 23, 2009 · 226 words
Some Days I Just Don’t Feel Like Sharing
Obligated though I am by the Rules of Modern Publishing to maintain a blog in which I post something intelligent, thoughtful, and wise every single day (or failing that, at least try to be amusing), there are some days when I’m just not, as Richard III said, in the giving vein. In fact there are […]
Read entry →September 23, 2009 · 145 words
Hitler Bunnies and Terror Potatoes
At least one of these Hitler Bunnies is clearly plotting evil. And the potato in the lower photo is either the result of black magic or perhaps an injection of thalydomide. Yes, this means we’ve been to the State Fair. Kathy’s New Mexico Tech had a booth open at the fair, and Kathy got some […]
Read entry →September 20, 2009 · 214 words
I Knew It!
Melting polar icecaps are exposing hundreds of secret lairs!ZACKENBERG RESEARCH STATION, GREENLAND—Claiming it to be one of the most dramatic and visible signs of climate change to date, researchers said Monday that receding polar ice caps have revealed nearly 200 clandestine lairs once buried deep beneath hundreds of
Read entry →September 20, 2009 · 109 words
Deep Cover Monopoly
During the Second World War, maps and tools were smuggled to Allied POW’s inside copies of the Monopoly game. The British secret service conspired with the U.K. manufacturer to stuff a compass, small metal tools, such as files, and, most importantly, a map, into cut-out compartments in the Monopoly board itself. “It wa
Read entry →September 19, 2009 · 996 words
Market Garden
John Appel reminded me that today is the one day when I count count on my dad having a hangover.My father was a two-vodka-martini-before-dinner kind of drinker, at least until later in life when he realized he could save money by skipping the vermouth entirely. He rarely got hammered, but he always got hammered on [&he
Read entry →September 17, 2009 · 103 words
Saturn’s Towers
The Cassini spacecraft has discovered giant structures towering in Saturn’s rings. (The spike on the picture is the structure’s shadow, not the structure itself.) In recent weeks, Cassini’s cameras have spotted not only the predictable shadows of some of Saturn’s moons, but also the shadows of newly revealed vertical s
Read entry →September 16, 2009 · 1,108 words
Judicial Humor
A judge in Georgia has dismissed as frivolous the case of Captain Doctor Connie Rhodes, who asked to be excused duty in Iraq on the grounds that President Obama is not a U.S. citizen and lacked the authority to order her deployment. Whew! The Republic is saved, yet again. But what was really terrific was […]
Read entry →September 16, 2009 · 499 words
Successful Moon Landing Test = $1Million.
Someone has qualified for the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. (Small steps, but still worth a million bucks.)Armadillo Aerospace qualified to win a million dollars of NASA’s money today by accomplishing a rocket-powered round trip modeled after a moon landing. The team’s remote-controlled Scorpius rocket (form
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