Are too many on Capitol Hill over the hill? I haven’t been writing blogs as often as I did a year or two ago, mostly because the world, especially the political world, has gone wacky. I can’t even make fun of this wackiness anymore, because these people are serious, and there are a lot of them out there. I should be enthused that, at this point, at least, two dudes much older than I will probably be [...] READ MORE
Will artificial intelligence mimic a human's sense of humor? It seems that, all of a sudden, artificial intelligence is about to change life and humanity as we know it. Who is going to need writers, poets, artists, musicians, composers, philosophers, and even preachers when artificial intelligence is about to mine the best we have within us, including any thoughts and theories ever recorded or visuals created on canvasses and movie screens since the first stick figures were [...] READ MORE
"I don't know about you, but the only rocking I'll be doing is in a chair!" When it comes to my favorite music, I live in the past with classic rock. Classic rock is struggling to remain relevant. In fact, CNN recently proclaimed that this summer “marks the twilight of classic rock.” Bob Dylan is 81. Paul McCartney is 80. Carlos Santana, one of the youngest rock icons at 74, was rendered unconscious by heat stroke at [...] READ MORE
Reaching back into the past for observations on humanity and humor. A number of years ago during my years as an editor and weekly columnist for a newspaper that has since banned my opinions, I wrote a column with the heading: “Direct Routes Aren’t Always the Most Effective Ways to Travel.” You see, the “number of years” from the date of that commentary is approaching 28, and I was, at the time, past the midpoint of a [...] READ MORE
Making it to the end of this essay is enough to wipe the smile off any face. I think I missed a week of blogging. I recently found a publisher for my book, and I’ve been going back and forth with a consultant, establishing a portal so we can start the editing process. That means carefully proofing two dozen chapters containing some 93,000 words and rounding up photos to illustrate the true crime manuscript. That’s my excuse [...] READ MORE
Brains sometimes have storms but minds have a more stable climate. This is a revision of moldy oldie of a newspaper column I wrote well before the turn of the 21st Century in 1990 when my mind, for what it’s worth, was much sharper. You’ll likely notice that I refer to the year 2000 as if it’s in the distant future. The subject was the source of our thoughts and being— the mind and the brain— often [...] READ MORE
When it comes to political humor, funny is in the mind of the beholder. It’s been a horrible year. A killer virus won’t go away on the heels of a nonsensical, abrasive campaign and an interminable election process. Next we have a sheltering-in-place Thanksgiving. Right after that comes Black Friday, which seems appropriately named this year. I wrote the above as an opening for a prospective blog between the 2020 election and Thanksgiving. I spent considerable [...] READ MORE
Joe Camel: From cool to out in the cold. Washington legislators can’t agree on much of anything anymore when it means crossing party lines, but they do seem to find common ground on one thing. That’s right, something has to be done about Facebook. A Senate Subcommittee heard testimony this week from a Facebook insider who was part of a “misinformation team” intent on stealing the hearts and minds of our youth — and, undoubtedly, a whole [...] READ MORE
Words and phrases that show your age. Uncool or rich in history and meaning? Now I’m too old to worry about whether I’m cool or not. Or is that too cool to worry about how old I am? I do know that it is still cool to use cool to mean something is, well, cool. It is one of the long-standing tidbits of slang that has lasted through multiple generations. Then again, that may not be true [...] READ MORE
Don’t mind me if I pick my brain. The potential of the human mind is limitless. That’s a no-brainer. Well, without a brain, you couldn’t have a… Never mind. Anyway, I’m not talking about people who don’t have brains. Their potential for having a mind is severely limited. It has been demonstrated after years of pseudo-psychometric research and exhaustive testing of people (who don’t seem to mind) that if you still don’t have a mind once you [...] READ MORE
