2014.

It’s always fascinating to look to the new year. All we can do is guess what’s going to happen. Will we be okay? Will all our loved ones be okay? What’s the worst thing that will happen?  Every year has its ups and downs. Not many are as bad as 1941, 1963, 1968, and 2001. All…
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The “Defense” budget

Talk about a bunch of doggerel: six hundred billion dollars for “defense.”  They used to call it the War Department, before 1945; unless there was a war, they didn’t really have all that much to do.  But defense?  Ah.  Everyone’s against war, but nobody can be against defense, or you’re anti-American. Well, the Senate just passed a…
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Well, this certainly stinks.

Pine beetles have been destroying the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.  Of course, they didn’t just recently develop an appetite for pines: they are called pine beetles, after all.  Unfortunately, our very love of trees is leading to their destruction.  Fire is a natural friend of the forest — and it’s hard for us to imagine…
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Letter to NYSDOT re: Preserving the Rails.

September 14, 2013 Raymond F. Hessinger, Director, Freight & Passenger Rail Bureau, NYS Department of Transportation, 50 Wolf Road, POD 54, Albany, NY 12232. Dear Sir: I strongly support the maintenance of the rail system in the Lake Placid – Remsen travel corridor. The sudden and aggressive nature of the rails-to-trails folks has all the hallmarks of a…
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What I believe.

Government: I believe that government of and by the people is not necessarily government for the people. We don’t usually know much at all about the representatives we choose, and we don’t understand most of the issues they vote on. The language of bills is written by people trained in law; it is not a language most Americans…
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Fran Frey obit

Fran Frey sang 26 sides for George Olsen’s band in the 1920s and early 30s. I got this obit from Ancestry.com; registration is required, so I signed in and downloaded this clip from the Los Angeles Times of December 8, 1962. Note: Fran’s is the second obit of the two.

You can find ANYTHING on the Internet. Really.

When I was 5, my family went to West Virginia on vacation. We took a ride on the then-new Cass Scenic Railroad. I bought a 45rpm record and played it till the grooves were gray. It was lost probably in 1966 in the various moves of my life.  You wouldn’t expect to find something so obscure…
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One of my favorite SF books.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick My rating: 5 of 5 stars It is quite fashionable, here in 2013, to say of this novel that it is “rather uneven, with a messy plot.” Flow My Tears came out in 1974, just before he flipped his lid (in my opinion) and wrote…
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Dead Pope John Paul II to be made a saint.

This is such a travesty of justice that it beggars words sufficient for description. Untold numbers of children cried out in prayer, some perhaps even to Pope John Paul II, hoping for some sort of companionship, even if only spiritual, to ease the sense of shame and self-loathing experienced by those who were abused by…
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