January 2012
5 posts
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After Sam’s basketball game this morning, he and I went to the laundromat to wash a rug. Sam brought some coloring books and crayons, and while we coloring as we waited for the rug to dry, he looked at me and said, “I love this day!” I told him I loved it, too.
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Chicken + Bucket + You Put the Chicken Into the...
Sunday’s “Dining Out” section of the TFP features a profile of Chicken-w-Wings, which is one of the most beautifully simple concepts for a restaurant I’ve ever heard.
“I wanted to start something Chattanooga doesn’t already have,” says Tim Bone, who is co-owner with his wife Melinda. He decided to start his own franchise, creating Chicken-w-Bones and opening the first...
December 2011
1 post
Yep, this pretty much sums it up.
...
November 2011
3 posts
Right now, people are standing in line to fight other people for a chance to buy stuff that other people are just going to return anyway.
I’ve always wanted to be a votivational speaker for the candle industry.
July 2011
1 post
2011 AltWeekly Awards Finalists for Media...
AAN’s 2011 AltWeekly Awards finalists have been announced.
Here are the nominees in media reporting and criticism. Always an interesting category.
MEDIA REPORTING / CRITICISM (circulation 50,000 and over) • Chicago Reader: “Opinionating Is Cheap, When Hyperlocal Journalism Does Its Job,” and “The Martyr and The Stool Pigeon” by Michael Miner • Creative Loafing...
April 2011
1 post
News!
I have finally updated my NEWS page.
There is news there now.
March 2011
9 posts
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A finalist for the theme song to my inner...
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The Importance of Controlling the Message
From “Are Christians Obsessed with Gays and Abortion?” by David French:
What is our real “obsession”? Historically, monetarily, and with our time and lives today, it is serving our fellow man. We fight the culture war, but largely as a defensive struggle—fighting against changes instigated by the Left, like legalized abortion, the redefinition of marriage, and attacks on...
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Interesting in Light of Current Events
From a letter written by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937:
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative ...
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WatchJoshua Rofé’s examination of why America is the only country on earth that allows juvenile offenders to be sentenced to life without parole is one of the more intriguing Kickstarter projects I’ve seen to date.
February 2011
4 posts
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Emoticons You Don't Need
I composed this list a couple of years ago and then forgot all about it.
(Technically, these are Droodles, but nobody knows what those are. So I called them emoticons instead.)
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January 2011
6 posts
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My State of Mind on Last Night's State of the...
• On the surface, at least, President Obama’s speech sounded like something Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush would have given. It featured many items likely to appeal to Republicans and conservatives, including: reducing the corporate tax rate, eliminating pork barrel spending, and free trade and medical malpractice reform. This throws a wrench into the plans of those on the right whose lone...
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While we waited as the lady who was cutting Sam’s hair answered a phone call, Sam and I had the following conversation…
Me: “Sam, look at all that hair… That was on your head.”
Sam: “Is the red part from the blood?”
Me: “No, buddy, your hair is just kinda red. There isn’t any blood.”
Sam: “Oh.”
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We Have Divorced Sprint
A few days after Christmas, Melissa and I decided the drop the ever-nickel-and-diming-us Sprint and try WalMart’s Straight Talk cell phone service. So far, we are both very happy with it. The phones are nicer than the ones we had, and the online activation was practically instantaneous. It looks like we’ll have more call and text time than we’ll know what to do with, and we...
December 2010
5 posts
My Ten Favorite Songs of 2010
1. “Play Myself Some Music” (R. Stevie Moore Cover) by Jason Falkner
2. “Grip” by Hume
3. “Shylight” by Soviet League
4. “Sunbeam Show” by Candy Claws
5. “Into Yr Mind” by Young Hunting
6. “Solitude Is Bliss” by Tame Impala
7. “Boyfriend” by Best Coast
8. “Round and Round” by Ariel Pink’s...
“Stay out of politics. That’s a berserk junkie’s game. The more you learn about the way politics works, the less you want to know.” — John Cusack, when asked by Entertainment Weekly what advice he’d give his 1986 self
I have fond memories of winters growing up in the northeast. Every time it snowed, we’d gather around the fireplace with a loaf of bread and make milk sandwiches.
November 2010
2 posts
“Into Yr Mind” by Young Hunting | mp3
“There’s a specific but maddeningly intangible skill in creating a song that seems to be without either beginning or end and yet is so hopelessly engaging.” — From a review by Joe Sparrow
Great, just great.
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan are not returning to ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”
NOW who’s gonna tell me how great Derek Jeter is while I’m watching the Red Sox/Angels game?
October 2010
5 posts
How a McRib Works
Step One: Four “ribs” (or strips of processed pork product) are glued to the top of a slab of processed pork product.
Step Two: Processed pork product is smothered with same barbecue sauce served with Chicken McNuggets.
Step Three: Sauce-smothered processed pork product is then placed on McRib bun. Pickles and onions are added, and the sandwich is heated.
Step Four: Heated...
WatchA gorgeous and haunting short film by Tony Blazejack made in tribute to bicyclist Christopher La Canne, who was killed last January by a drunk driver on Miami’s Key Biscayne Bridge. Original music by my niece, Jill Hartmann.
From the “I Didn’t See This Coming” file:
According to John Cougar Mellencamp, Sarah Palin is not stupid.
The legendary rocker says that while he doesn’t support her positions, he is impressed by the mark she’s made on the country since the 2008 election.
Mellencamp says people get the wrong idea about her intellect “just because she says things and...
