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Category Archives: Ramblings

A Sea of Troubles

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Here’s my story, it’s sad but true. About my troubles with CTBlue. It took my words and ran away. And was not fixed, for many a day For the benefit of anyone born after 1955, the above is sung to the tune of “Runaround Sue”. It is entirely possible that somebody, somewhere, noticed that this […]

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A little alternate history

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Most rational people would agree that had this plague descended upon us during Obama’s presidency, he would have done a far better job of dealing with it. That being said, the question arises, would it have made any difference so far as the outcome? At first blush, the answer is “obviously yes”, but if you […]

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Past Perfect

Friday, December 27, 2019

Fred McNulty, who for years has been the youngest member of our Drinking Liberally Group (we’ve always wondered how he put up with us), has an interesting post at his blog, Miguk Minute. (And don’t expect I’ll explain what Miguk means) Fred deconstructs the “War on Christmas” meme. For the most part, with one major exception that […]

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Back from the shadows again

Friday, July 26, 2019

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, as I am on vacation in the wilds of Vermont, going to the same places we go every year. Once again, we went to the Hapgood “Eatery” in Peru (that would be the Peru in Vermont, just down the road from the Bromley ski area), and once again, […]

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A few thoughts on latter day mortal sins

Monday, February 11, 2019

I mentioned in a post yesterday that I’m currently reading Jill Lepore’s These Truths, a history of the US. Today I began the last section of the book, covering the period from the end of World War II to our own bleak times. Early in that period the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education. Lepore […]

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A few disjointed observations

Friday, January 4, 2019

I started writing this a few days ago. In this day of instant reaction to the news via twitter that might as well be decades, but I’m going to post it anyway. As I browsed through my blog reader recently I found a number of common themes. I have nothing to add to the universal […]

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History isn’t always written by the winners

Monday, April 2, 2018

I just finished Ron Chernow’s Grant, a book I highly recommend.One thing the book brings home is the fact that the history of the Civil War, particularly the post-Civil War period, was written, not by the winners, but by the losers. I’ve been a history nut all my life. I remember reading every Landmark book […]

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Two years ago today

Saturday, March 10, 2018

I have been keeping a journal on my Ipad, on and off, for the past two years or so. If there is a phrase that connotes the opposite of “deathless prose”, that’s pretty much what the journal contains. Anyway, the app automatically shows entries from the same calendar date from prior years. Two years ago […]

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More on “shithole”

Sunday, January 14, 2018

I spend a lot of time playing *Words with Friends* with my brother-in-law, who lives in France. If you play the game you know that, unlike in Scrabble, if you play a word that isn’t a word, you simply get to try again, without losing a point. Also, the game has a built in dictionary […]

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A time to wallow

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

A few things about the Jones win last night. First, now this means I won’t get an email from him every hour. I should add that I responded to several. Second, thank you black people of Alabama for doing the country a huge favor. Third, the victory is made the sweeter by the fact that […]

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