So! My last post evoked a quick response from a complimentary, yet mostly anonymous commenter, who assured me that women are equally clueless as men, when it comes to reading the thoughts of each other’s gender. And so the cycle continues. Yet, understanding can sometimes be accomplished with a dialogue (or, in this case, a[...]
(Copyright © 2005 by Wil C. Fry. All rights reserved.) There should have been a class. In this class, there would be a textbook with a title like, “How to Have at Least Part of a Clue What Members of the Other Gender Are Thinking.” The workbook would be called “Signs a Woman/Man Doesn’t Want[...]
(Copied from my “Little Blue Notebook”) Some people are like shovels, digging deeper into one particular subject or interest. I am more like a rake, scraping the surface of a hundred categories.
Old photographs are certainly a joy to observe, but tonight I was reminded that in many respects, moving pictures are better than still ones. While a still photo may capture a “moment” or an instant in time, usually a posed moment, the motion picture can capture an entire afternoon, or an activity from beginning to[...]
I’ve never been bored in my life. Not once. Don’t believe me? Then, my friend, you should read on. A thousand times in my nearly 33 years, I’ve heard people utter the words, “I’m bored,” or “This is boring.” Every time I hear it, I come to one of two conclusions: (1) either the person[...]
I’ll admit it; I’m as guilty as the next guy. Sometimes, I’ll see the news reports about a police officer, or group of them, beating someone down, firing their weapons without apparent cause, chasing someone to death, and so on. And, just like the next guy, I’ll think, “Good Lord! When will they ever learn[...]
I read recently that American workers are working longer hours than workers in all other developed nations, and our average hours of work per year are actually increasing, unlike in other countries, where this number has been steadily dropping. Is this a surprise to anyone? Also, our wages are falling. This isn’t the first time[...]
My life can easily be divided up into neat little sections. Usually, it’s easiest to do this in chapters of where I lived. There were the Honolulu Years, the Tokyo Years, Choctaw (Okla.) Years, Texas Years, Missouri Years, Arkansas Years, and Seminole (Okla.) Years. This would be one way. Another way to divide up my[...]
For the first time in many years, my family had a traditional Fourth of July celebration. Oh, we always try something… a cookout, pop a few firecrackers… something. But this time, we had the whole package. Part of it was due to a series of wonderful coincidences. (1) The Fourth fell on a Monday this[...]
Dancing around in my head are memories of terribly hot Oklahoma summers from my childhood. They are happy memories. The adults cooking up tons of hot dogs and hamburgers, and laying red-and-white checkered table cloths over picnic tables with a thousand condiments and varieties of potato chips. The kids running willy-nilly across the sparse dry[...]
Commentary: A record Powerball jackpot isn’t a record to celebrate (Christian Science Monitor) The editorial board of CSM concluded their piece with this: Before the news media play up the next record-setting mega-lottery like Powerball, they may want to add these kinds of caveats in their reporting. It could deter people from rushing to the[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of To Sail Beyond The Sunset (1987) by Robert A. Heinlein, the last novel he published before dying in 1988: “I remember Earth. I knew her when she was clean and green, mankind’s beautiful bride, sweet and lush and lovable… It is futile to mourn over[...]
There is a school of thought, albeit a relatively unpopular one, that poor grammar or punctuation on printed signs should be corrected with a Sharpie or other tool, vigilante style. In the News: Vigilante Copy Editor (New York Times) And there are older instances, such as this one (The Virginian-Pilot).
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners (1985) by Robert A. Heinlein: “It does not do to encourage bad banners; one should retaliate, urbanely but firmly.”
In The News: Adobe starts subscription for Photoshop and Dreamweaver (BBC News) This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone; many software companies are moving in this direction. Instead of having to ship millions of boxes and discs every year when they upgrade the software, they’re just going to add the updates to the online[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of I Will Fear No Evil (1970) by Robert Heinlein: “…most people think of money as something to pay the rent. But a money man thinks of money in terms of what he can do with it.” “…it’s impossible for a woman to lay it on[...]
For about $5, I made this measuring cup holder that’s hidden inside a kitchen cabinet: (Copyright © 2013 by Wil C. Fry. All rights reserved.)
My wife and I invoked our “30 minute rule” when watching this movie. The rule is: if the movie can’t interest either of us in 30 minutes, then we turn it off and quit wasting our time. According to Wikipedia, this film is based on a 1974 novel and “the story follows the hunt for[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during my 2002 reading of Stranger In A Strange Land (1961) by Robert Heinlein, of which I wrote on Nov. 14, 2002, “Perhaps the best book ever written.” (I no longer feel that way, but it’s still a pretty good book.)
There’s a new White House Tumblr page, and the first entry includes an image with this lettering: “ANIMATED GIFs (HARD ‘G’)”. First, let me say I’m proud that they didn’t put an apostrophe in “GIFs”, as so many on the internet seem to do these days.
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