Monthly Archives: December 2009

Dave Hall sent us a Christmas card with a note quoting the old Chinese curse (not a blessing), “May you live in interesting times.”   He then commented that it is almost a full-time job to keep up with the daily … Continue reading →

Nancy Leith Musser sent me a copy of a typewritten item that may have come from “The Highlander,” the school newspaper of our Highland Avenue Junior High.  The author is unknown and it has no date, but it is apparently … Continue reading →

Today’s column by L. Gordon Crovitz in the Wall Street Journal describes an animation technique to illustrate news items developed by a Hong Kong company.  They say the technique can produce an animation in 90 minutes.  The latest example shows … Continue reading →

Pompous advertising must have peaked in The New Yorker magazines of the 1950s and 1960s, a magazine noted for pompousness of its own.  Their efforts to raise the mundane to the sublime makes reading the ads as much fun as … Continue reading →

Most our age remember coal furnaces and are aware the name for hard coal, the best type for home heating, is anthracite (see the posting of 12/13 07).  The word “anthracite” comes from “anthrax,” the Latin version of the Greek … Continue reading →

The last fifteen years of my working career was in the Safety and Health Department where part of my duties was to answer emergency phone calls that fit my area of expertise, such as those on nitroglycerin mentioned in the … Continue reading →

The last time I visited my son’s family in Florida, my 10-year-old, fashion-conscious granddaughter asked me how many outfits I brought for the one week we would be there. I had to explain to her I did not think in … Continue reading →