November Rambling: Candy, Poetry, and 50 Shades

An Opinion Piece On A Controversial Topic. “Pretty awesome meta.”

Gettysburg Address at 150.

Heidi Boghosian joins Bill Moyers for a conversation on what we all need to know about surveillance in America. “Spying on democracy,” indeed.

The defense should not be permitted to refer to the prosecutor… as “the Government.” It might sound… prejudicial.

Texas Man Sued for Defamation by Fracking Company that Contaminated his Water Supply.

“You could get better if you wanted to.” “You should just try harder.” “You’re being lazy.” “You need to be more motivated.” “You’re so needy.”

Methodist Pastor Has 30 Days to Renounce His Gay Children or Be Defrocked; it’s a matter of right and wrong.

Always Go to the Funeral.

Exclusive excerpt from Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix retrospective. Some lifetime ago, before Maus, Spiegelman used to come up to the FantaCo comic book store in Albany occasionally with his RAW magazine, this eclectic oversized publication.

Radiation Birds and Humans.

Tarzan and the Ben Day Men, or The Mechanics of Color in the Sunday Comics.

Comics have hit puberty…and it’s not pretty.

Comic book artist Nick Cardy: 1920-2013. Also, a remembrance by Evanier.

The Bat Segundo Show #522: Samira Kawash is most recently the author of Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure.

The Death of Letter-Writing. I still have a bunch of letters I received in the late 1970s to about 2000, when they pretty much dried up.

Dear Spike Lee.

Poetry Is….

Jaquandor’s rules for writing, which are very good. But they remind me why I avoid the long form.

The history of the English language in 100 places.

SamuraiFrog, bless his heart, is writing 50 Shades of Grey, as Summarized by a Smartass, or for short, 50 Shades of Smartass. He reads it so you don’t have to. Here’s the backstory of the series and Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. My, this must be a terrible book.

Speaking of sarcasm, Arthur’s To kill a mocking post.

How a Houston airport decided to just trick the passengers into thinking they weren’t waiting for their bags. Also airborne, balloonacy.

Recycling your church hymnal. Like many Presbyterian churches, my church recently purchased a set of the new hymnal, Glory to God.

Companies large and small are using software to scan online resume submissions. Read these tips to ensure yours passes the robot test.

Everything you always wanted to know about labyrinths. I like labyrinths, but really dislike mazes. I like dominoes.

Indiewire lists From ‘Showgirls’ to ‘Orgazmo,’ Here Are The Top Grossing NC-17 Rated Films of All Time. But there are only 30 films on the list. They couldn’t add the other 10?

Hear this arrangement of a Joni Mitchell song, which will make you fall in love with it all over again.

The song Wherever It Points by Kacey Musgraves.

Dustbury: The first act signed by Sun Records in forty years is Julie Roberts. Her first Sun release is Good Wine and Bad Decisions, and if that’s not a classic country title, I’ve never heard one.

Melanie had a goal to write 30 posts about things that makes her smile between October 19 and Thanksgiving. Among my favorites: #24, Steven Sharp Nelson and the cello, #17, End Road Work, and #13, Dinovember.

Groucho Marx on The Dating Game. What a scary concept….

Winning “The Price Is Right: Strategies for contestants row. That is a program that should be a logistical nightmare, but they figured out how to do it.

Story about my college friend Claire: Designer rebuilds after loss of mother, battle with cancer.

Dustbury: There is a finite period between the time the leaves start to fall and the time the trees are completely bare. I have no idea how long that might be. And he has turned the big six-oh.

Eddie, the Renaissance Geek, is a number that has a whole number as its square root. Next year, he’ll have to change his blog bio. Oh, and he does passive-aggressive very well – see, oh, the humanity #2.