Author Archives: Joel

I mean, sure, I’ve noticed that they’re sufficiently widespread that only certain oddballs (including me) don’t own them. I’d even noticed that some of those oddballs (not really including me) seem to take a perverse pride in not owning them. … Continue reading →

Not really. I’ve enjoyed my visit very much, really. I had pho for supper last night, for the first time in a decade and a half. That was pleasant. But I’m ready to go back to my grubby, quiet gulch. … Continue reading →

I just got a solid eight hours of sleep. And it only took eight hours to do it. Further, it’s the second time this week that it’s happened. I was so surprised the first time, I found a second clock … Continue reading →

The city currently under study is said to be an island of correct-thinking progressives in a sea of toothless rednecks, but we have an idea that the participants’ hearts aren’t really in it. It does contain a university district, and … Continue reading →

My host has a clothes dryer, a luxury item which at home is possessed only by those blessed with really lavishly big solar electric systems. And even they only use them on the afternoons of good sunny days. So I’m … Continue reading →

In the course of other business yesterday, our correspondent had opportunity to enter a local emporium for edible provisions. This was a large, clean, well-lit and heavily stocked facility, and our correspondent proceeded to hopefully whip out his high-tech wish … Continue reading →

Personal to the article writer: Did you manage to keep a straight face while typing any smallest part of this paragraph? Two well-placed sources tell New York that over the past few weeks Hillary Clinton discussed with trusted advisers and … Continue reading →

I know it’s just politician-speak. I know it’s going to be semantically null before she’s done opening her mouth. But sometimes a pol says something that makes me wonder if she has any capacity for shame at all… House Minority … Continue reading →

My host rises early and I’m dealing with insomnia without my usual crutches, so this morning LB and I were out the door at well before sunrise. He, reasoning that if I’m on vacation he bloody well should be as … Continue reading →

Light Switch Nazi! Foreign Dispatch #2: The Enlightening The people of this strange city behave as if electricity is generated bounteously in huge centralized facilities rather than frugally in sensible decentralized household systems as Rand (PBUH) intended. Why, our correspondent … Continue reading →

…who’s going straight to hell for this. The Gospel of Browning Gun Jesus has shown up before, so you just can’t trust anything.

I have this odd impulse to go tend chickens. Normally the requirement that I go out and do that is a little annoying. This morning I miss it. Had an uneventful trip and a quite pleasant evening, but I’m afraid … Continue reading →

So whatever else goes wrong this year – and it might be a helluvan interesting ride – just keep telling yourself… …It could have been worse.

Check this out… That, dear friends, is a large USPS box so stuffed with SF books and guy movie DVDs the box didn’t quite survive the trip to the Gulch. And do you know what I’m doing right now? No, … Continue reading →

I don’t criticize the doings of the U.S. Navy on the pages of this blog for many reasons, most boiling down to my complete ignorance rendering me unworthy of any opinion. But the USS Gabrielle Giffords? You’ve got to be … Continue reading →

A sunny and still mid-fifties day at the end of December. The solar power’s loving it, the chickens are content, LB’s … asleep, so that doesn’t really matter. The pullets had a personal best seven-egg day yesterday. Six the day … Continue reading →

EPA targets key ingredient in pizza, bread in latest eleventh-hour rule The Environmental Protection Agency is targeting a key ingredient for making pizza and bread in its latest last-minute regulation before President Obama steps down. The proposed regulation published Wednesday … Continue reading →

Bloomberg’s Colossal Nevada Collapse. CARSON CITY — A new law requiring background checks for private party gun sales in Nevada is unenforceable because it prohibits the state from running those checks through its databases, and the FBI said it will … Continue reading →

It’s a cold, gloomy morning, the forecast predicted partly cloudy but right now it’s heavy overcast. The Lair is warm and heavily scented with this morning’s roast pork and yesterday’s bread baking. I don’t have anything social on the day’s … Continue reading →

It’s been a long time since I spent a day and a night away from the Gulch. Like, as far as I can remember it’s been six years. I more or less came here with the intention to become a … Continue reading →