underdogishere

Five years ago I told a joke. Not really a joke just a humorous aside that I used to say now and again in safe company. It went along the ...

I'm reading William Joyce's Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King . One of its many charms is that, in the old-fa...

So it's only been a year and a day since I last posted here? I was sure it had been longer than that. What brought me out from under my...

The combination of MongoDB and jQuery is the coolest thing I've worked with in a long, long time.

...were the numbers I saw when I looked at my clock this morning, as the twin sonic booms reached my ears and rattled my sliding glass door...

Jana Remy, on her blog , posed this question: what is the plural form of 'apocalypse'? ...to which I would answer: Why would you eve...

...because that's what we do at the end of a year, isn't it? Retrospect? Because we in "the West" have arbitrarily chosen...

Rubber duck Nativity:

My Christmas tree at work this year (those are Swarovski ornaments):

We were in a restaurant, and at a nearby table the waiter was wrapping up serving a party. Overheard: Waiter: Happy Holidays! Patron: Whe...

Judi's Christmas tree!

This was produced by a company in England, Alphabet Photography , as a Christmas gift for their customers, and was originally sent to about ...

A young man speaking: My grandma is kinda mostly sane. Sometimes. The color commentator on a broadcast team covering a college football gam...

A couple of months ago, on Morning Edition, there was a professor who specialized in Pakistani history talking about why so many Pakistanis ...

Last weekend, we made our annual Toys For Tots drop off at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the beach: Judi's mother joined us this year for th...

A coworker baked this gorgeous cake, which I photographed using my phone just before she sliced into it: It was more beautiful than the pict...

From time to time I'm in a store and see a sign that says "Unattended children will be sold as slaves." Besides being convent...

Asina Nos ta Cushina compiled by Jewell Fenzi One of the greatest pleasures of traveling is enjoying the local cuisines. Cooking seems like ...

Andie has been gone four weeks; heartbreak still opens a lonely home's door.

Judi, as we were leaving a bar-b-que restaurant last week: "I'm leaving with wings on my fingers and ribs on my toes."

Banned Books Week began this weekend! Now this is my idea of a holiday. Librarians, of course, stand at the forefront of those who battle ...

From time to time I teach classes where I work. In one particular class, all but one of the students arrived early. While we were waiting ...

Special note: The following post was actually written two years ago, almost to the day. I thought I had posted it then -- I don't know...

A while back (okay, five years ago -- how times flies) I posted about the magical effect of the phrase "bless his heart." Last w...

Yesterday was Judi's Happy Birthday. She took the opportunity to visit the butterfly exhibit at our local zoo . It was her final oppor...

I thought this was pretty clever: It's a pitcher with a column in the middle that you can fill with ice, to keep the juice cool.

Feeling peace, stillness, quiet heart, one should not have to get out of bed

I was standing in the back aisle of a supermarket, waiting for an employee to check on something. I was trying hard to overhear a young man...

Disclaimer: Believe it or not, I composed this post before my brother's post, below, appeared. And he and I have never discussed Faceb...

Northern Bro: The web is full of old fogey stories and here is mine. I admit that I just don’t get Facebook or Youtube. Youtube is somethin...

I desperately want to build a bridge, but can see no way forward.

A local retirement home has been running a radio ad in which they tout, among their many other amenities, "chef inspired menus." I...

I've finished The Island of Dr. Moreau , by H. G. Wells. I enjoyed it very much, but one thing in particular really jumped out at me. ...

Leroy Satchel Paige famously claimed that no one knew when he had been born, and that even led him to coin one of my favorite sayings: ...

at my side He lay, as His great heart slowed, slept, and then stilled forever

Recently, Judi and I had a friendly debate over the meaning of the word whore . No, it's not what you think: The word came up in a mag...

My sincere thanks to Jen over at EPBOT for calling my attention to this terrific video * : Jen was much taken with Thomas Jefferson (who wa...

In my previous post, about Kindle for Android, I mentioned that it doesn't have search, or dictionary look-up. Okay, I thought, it'...

Kindle for Android was released a couple of days ago! I'd been waiting for it, and there was a touch of cosmic irony in that I found ou...

Now that the U.S. has been eliminated from the World Cup, I can post about this without fear of jinxing us. I've been awed by how much t...

...because otherwise you might not believe it. This is in the Macy's at the Plaza Las Americas mall in San Juan, Puerto Rico: It's ...

...and this is the view from my balcony:

...that neologism was once a new word.

If you look up solecism in the dictionary, I'm pretty sure you'll find a picture of this poster: ...which is hung on the side of a ...

The weather has been gorgeous here; so gorgeous that Judi has been leaving the sliding glass door open, so the dogs can go out and in freely...

I just discovered this quote from Vladimir Nabokov: With the Devil's connivance I open a newspaper of 2063 and in some article on the bo...

Yesterday I was at the local university, Florida Institute of Technology , for the annual Botanical Fest. It was for the butterflies -- you...

According to my brother, the genealogist in my family, this guy was our direct ancestor: SIMEON SMITH was the man [who was a friend and fami...

So what kind of business would you want to be sure would be open on Valentine's Day? You know, for those last minute Valentine's Da...

No visit to New York would be complete without an evening spent in Times Square. And no part of Times Square is more iconic than its high-t...

If you want the full scoop on Manhattan's newest park, the High Line, you can start by clicking here , and remember, Google is your fri...

Northern bro. I have to say up front this entry has nothing to do with politics. Instead I reflect on Christmas carols. Evelyn, our three ...

ESPN Radio has taken over a station in my area. I'm not much of a sports fan, but sometimes I like to listen to talk radio, instead of ...

Lots of pictures in this one! We decided to take a walking tour of Chinatown. After much looking online, I picked this one, which turned ou...

Every time I stay in a big city -- one with tall buildings -- I never fail to find rooftop gardens. It seems ubiquitous that some city resi...

If you read the previous post, you know I spent a few days in New York City a couple of weeks ago. I was just looking at the pictures I too...

It so happened that I was in New York City this past weekend. When the blizzard hit. The snow began falling about midday on Saturday, and ...