Monthly Archives: July 2004

John Shirley and I have a lot in common. Aside from the superficial stuff — he’s a famous writer, I’m not; his blog has thousands of visitors; mine does not, he’s farther left than Ralph Nader, I’m not — we … Continue reading →

Here is the view from the deck of the beach house we’ve rented with friends in Alabama. Why Alabama? Why not, I said to myself when I found the place on the Web. Sure, Alabama’s coastline is puny compared to, … Continue reading →

I was driving down to Alabama from Charlotte the other day and it occurred to me: the route we were taking almost exactly duplicated the route Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy took in Driving Miss Daisy. We stopped for the … Continue reading →

Don’t you just hate it when one of your favorite bloggers just stops blogging one day, with no explanation as to what’s happened? Isn’t it even worse when he or she finally shows up again, full of apologies and explanations. … Continue reading →

My 12-year-old son’s number one criteria for evaluating a movie is its rating: the higher the rating, the more likely he is to want to watch the movie. An R-rated movie must naturally better than PG-13, PG-13 is better than … Continue reading →

If it’s not immediately obvious from the prose, the “best” way to discern the political leanings of a blog is to take a look at the comments section. If there aren’t a lot of comments, you tend to go to … Continue reading →

I’ve sent the following e-mail to my governmental representatives. I suggest you do the same in your own districts. To: Michael Dickerson, Mecklenberg County Election Director John W. Rhodes, State Representative Robert Pettenger, State Senator Mel Watt, U.S. Congressman John … Continue reading →

The New York Times reviewed Riding Giants, the new documentary about why, in its director’s words, “people choose to devote their entire lives to the pursuit of riding waves.” The Times’ review (by Stephen Holden) takes a different view of … Continue reading →

It’s unprecedented, I know — two posts in one day — but I just had to comment on Bush’s comment about John Edwards. As the headline indicates, when asked to compare Cheney to Edwards, Bush’s response was “Dick Cheney can … Continue reading →

I’m continuing on this week’s theme of padding my “links” list over to the left. For some reason, today I had less trouble locating a decent blog than I did yesterday. Perhaps my standards have dropped, but I don’t think … Continue reading →

Yeah, I know, it’s supposed to be part of the blog culture. We bloggers are supposed to love finding other blogs, linking to other blogs, interacting with all the other bloggers out there in the blogosphere. Somehow, though, it’s just … Continue reading →

So I arrive home yesterday around about noon, after a quick, rainy two days in Asheville (trip summary: no, you can’t get into the Biltmore Winery for free — you have to pay the 39 bucks for the entire estate … Continue reading →

This slashdot thread is ostensibly about the Sony’s release of a new competitor to the iPod, a new hard-drive based Walkman. A rational response, assuming one owns or is thinking of buying an iPod, is “great! This will put pressure … Continue reading →