Friday Fun: Get Me a Piece of That Action
As you may know, I’m a big fan of Penn & Teller’s Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, in which the trickster duo exposes, rips apart, and generally makes fun of various nonsense: mediums who claim to talk to the dead, acupuncturists, feng shui consultants, other new-age practitioners, self-help gurus, conspiracy theorists, big-foot hunters, politicians… [...]
Friday Fun: When You Don’t Feel Funny
Springtime is upon us here in New England, and you know what that means: rain, sun, sleet, rain, bitter cold, sweltering heat, wind, snow, rain, green grass, birds chirping, and—most significantly—taxes. And it is this last that makes me feel like blech. Let’s be clear about this. Taxes are not the price we pay for [...]
Friday Fun: The 5 Rules of Book Reviews
Authors and publishers, in my opinion, spend way too much time sucking up to literary critics, which is why I decided to become a book reviewer. Of course, no critic actually deserves the respect he gets (myself included), not for his opinion in any case. And I dare say, publishers wouldn’t give critics the time [...]
Friday Fun: Links across the Web
Today, I had planned to publish a piece making fun of book reviewers and literary critics. Because in my opinion, publishers spend way too much time sucking up to them, which is why I decided to become a book reviewer. Unfortunately, I was unable to make fun of them without sounding bitter at them, which [...]
Friday Fun: SUCCESS! And More of It!
(Adapted from “The Fallacy of Success” by G.K. Chesterton.) One of the most pressing issues of the members of today’s generation is what they should do with their lives. In generations of old, social and family pressures kept people in line. You took up the same occupation as your father before you, or else you’d [...]
Jojo’s Sunning Himself under the Waterfall
Just a quick video post today… This was too cute. We have a fresh-water turtle, a red-eared slider, which we’ve raised from a tiny baby. Back then, he lived in a small tank, about the size of a fishbowl. Now, he’s outgrowing his grown-up-sized tank, and we’re thinking he may need an even bigger one. [...]
Friday Fun: Revising Your Novel
As a writer, I often get asked, how do you revise a novel? Actually, I don’t get asked that. Someone does often ask me what word he wanted to use, as though I as a writer should have a command of words. (I don’t. But that’s a different post.) Of course, if I knew what [...]
You Too Could Save $00** Using a Service You Already Have!
We got a wonderfully funny letter from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts today, partially reproduced here (click to enlarge): The letter goes on to explain that certain of our prescriptions, we could get them home delivered for $00 less than what we pay to pick them up! How cool is that! The flip-side lists the [...]
Friday Fun: Driving in Boston 2
(This is part 2 of a roast of the Boston driver. Click here for part 1.) The situation is exacerbated at rotaries. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Boston rotary, it is a complex, multilateral intersecting way, with no stop signs, at which everyone goes at the same time, and [...]
Friday Fun: Driving in Boston
Nothing requires so keen a notice, so focused a concentration, so large and intimidating a vehicle, as does driving in Boston. When we first moved to Boston from western Pennsylvania, we were both intrigued and horrified to see public roadways under construction, with potholes dug the size of the Great Lakes and manhole covers raised [...]