In an era where people increasingly know themselves through their relationships to high technology, it helps to examine our relationships with older technologies – the kinds of things that we have long stopped thinking of as such. Toys are one such ancient innovation, solutions to the perennial problem of boredom, and tools for the expansion… Continue reading

Greetings, passers by! A little while ago, I made a personal commitment to have something posted to this blog every weekend. I wanted to keep in practice, feed the fire as it were, so that someday I could look back at all the words I wrote and say, “if nothing else, I sure could keep… Continue reading

After this last weekend, I took a step back from my long-running Tumblr blog in order to focus myself on things that make me happier (a category, one might conclude, that includes just about anything that isn’t “posting on Tumblr every day”). Before I left the hellsite behind, however, I reblogged a post by a… Continue reading

The idiom in the title of this post is first known in the English language from 1959, a surprisingly recent date given that the English have been picking literal cherries since at least the time of Henry VIII. It is an evocative metaphor, taken nowadays to mean that a person, when presented with a constellation… Continue reading

On my table there is jigsaw puzzle, depicting a romantic view of the famous Italian village of Manarola. My wife Ariele and I have worked painstakingly to assemble this image, in fits and starts, for nearly a year. The box advertises its contents at 2000 pieces, though by counting the edge pieces I’ve determined the… Continue reading

As the pendulum swings from the one to the other,I grasp at that brass as if all that I knowis the stillness ahead and the moment behind mewhen all that I knew was the stillness I lived,and the roar of the air by my ears and the terrorof gravity’s hideous pull is a dream. At… Continue reading

We will start today with an unusual premise: that on June 1st, 2024, I had in my personal possession at least one (1) copy of every music album that had ever seen wide release. Whether analog or digital, on disc or mp3, officially purchased or acquired by other, undisclosed means, I could access every last… Continue reading

Last summer I was sifting through some boxes of old things, some of which I hadn’t seen since I was in high school or, even before then. Not everything I discovered was a treasure, but I did find a few things that I flagged right away as precious. So that’s what happened to those ‘Giant… Continue reading

Sometimes when I’m in need of a time-waster, I find some paper and perform a little activity where I make lists of words. Simple as that, but with a twist in line with my interest in phonology and vocabulary. It’s an edifying opportunity to reflect on how I speak, and I swear to you it’s… Continue reading

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