It’s my nameday, school is out, and my wife and I are whizzing through the air in an amazing flying machine that but 110 years ago, was an unimaginable fantasy. (When this post comes out, we’ll be on our way to Dubai, en-route to Bangkok.) My second book, In Defense of Flogging, is all-but done. It’s been a slog. Last…
This one is almost too much to believe. And not for the normal reasons of becoming abandoned. Fall River, Mass, is still doing OK, I think. But not what used to be the heart of downtown. And now. It doesn’t look like the same place. But it is. Where’s that beautiful building on the right I take to be City…
I’m ran the latest draft of my book through a word-frequency count. 47 uses of “simply”?! That’s simply too many, and I got that down to 11 (mostly just by deleting them–it’s interesting how often “simply” simply isn’t needed). Now I’m working on “certainly,” “of course,” and “actually.” It’s very easy to fall on such linguistic crutches when you’re writing.…
Sort of. And only in response to a lawsuit. Here’s the Times story. Why not just give out the raw data so academics like me can actually use it? It might actually help the NYPD and the city. Just sayin’…
From the Chicago Sun Times: Sex toy defendant arrested for failing to show up to court. Warning: there’s a picture of Ms. Bildsten, 56, of Gurnee, Ill. Here’s how she first came to our attention.
I love Venn Diagrams. This is a good one: It’s from a site I need to visit more, Chartport.org.
If you’re not a writer or a computer nerd, just skip this. Really. I’m editing my book (and being doing so for a long while). It’s very near done and still a very slow process. About six hours ago, I bought a text-to-speech program online for $50 (NaturalSoft, for what it’s worth. I have no idea if there are better…
The headline says: “Portugal’s drug policy pays off; US eyes lessons.” Of course it should probably say, “US ignores lessons.” I like pseudo neutral editor’s note: “This is part of an occasional series by The Associated Press examining the U.S. struggles in its war on drugs after four decades and $1 trillion.” The story is here. I haven’t read it…
This time from Jacksonville, Florida. It looks like the Hamrock Hotel is a pretty upscale place, with all them nice new Ford motorcars out front! The only old building left is vacant, abandoned, and falling apart. And as usual, business and buildings have been replaced with parking lots and vacant lots. There’s one big new building. But no reason to…
Happy Boxing Day (if you’re Canadian). Or Second Day of Christmas (if you’re Dutch). Why don’t we have two-day holidays (especially the Friday after Thanksgiving)? In the news: People in jail recording themselves reading books for their kids to listen to. The DEA is big and scary and still unable to stop world leaders from dealing drugs. And the New…