TweetNo doubt some will cite this as evidence that my Ménière’s has reached the point at which I need a hearing aid. But in my defense, my wife was out in the hallway when she said this, and I was in the bathroom with the exhaust fan running — although the door, I admit, was […]
Tweet As previously mentioned, I was in Memphis over the weekend. It was quite a trip — seven of us (all adults; the little ones either traveled separately or stayed home) packed into a minivan. All the way there Friday, all the way back Sunday. Except for a couple of brief stints while I wolfed […]
Tweet Went to the Rendezvous for Charlie Vergos’ famous dry-rub ribs Friday night, and was really surprised when I looked down at the menu. Is it just me, or is that guy a dead ringer for our own Joe Neal, preacher and legislator? I don’t think it’s just me. When I got back and took […]
TweetFolks, this is just a quick note to tell you that if I seem a little detached from the Blogosphere, there’s a reason for it. My father-in-law died Thursday, and so we gathered up all of our kids and in some cases their kids, and made our way in three cars to Memphis through all […]
Tweet FYI, I’ll be celebrating the New Year in Memphis this evening. Things are going fairly well here, although as you can see, the weather’s a bit dingy. I’m writing from the pictured Starbucks, the one at White Station and Poplar. This location has significance for me because my wife worked in this very building […]
TweetI was sitting in a tiny coffee house on the corner of Poplar and Perkins Extended in Memphis when the drugs failed to kick in. Second cup, no buzz yet, although my leg is jiggling a bit. This High Point Coffee just doesn’t have something that Starbucks has. (As Mike Myers would say in a […]
Tweet Excuse the archaic language from my beloved Patrick O’Brian novels, but I enjoy that way of saying that today marks 50 years of marriage to my true, original, and eternal beloved, Juanita! It just means “congratulate us.” Even lubbers should know that. It’s been quite a celebration, and it will continue through the day. […]
TweetOne of these just smacked me in the face a moment ago when I was innocently looking for something entirely unrelated. It came from a supposed institute of higher learning — although I assume it was written by an undergraduate intern or some such in the press office. (I did a word-study job like that […]
Tweet I may have mentioned that I finally got fed up with the fundraising texts from Sherrod Brown, which sometimes came multiple times in a day. So I said STOP, and they stopped — except for once or twice, when I assume the algorithm was referring to the wrong list. So now I mostly only […]
TweetDoug brought up the subject, and Barry weighed in, and then I started to, but realized I had several different things to say about it, and might as well make it a separate post… Here’s the relevant part of Doug’s comment: University of South Carolina has announced a record number of freshman in the upcoming […]
Tweet Hey, y’all, I’m back — again. Remember how I told you I’d been on the island of Dominica, and that I would tell you all about it, but didn’t? That’s because I left town again for a few days, to accompany my wife to Memphis for her 50th high school reunion. I try to […]
Tweet You know how I used to refuse to vote early — because of my love of Election Day and the communitarian experience of getting out there and standing in line with my neighbors, yadda-yadda? Well, I broke with that in 2020, and it’s a good thing I did. I did it, as much as […]
Tweet Yeah, I know we have real inflation now. Of course, unless the economy has come to a halt and is in danger of sliding into deflation, like during the Depression, we always have inflation. It’s just it’s somewhat higher right now. Now, it’s more like what we lived with in the early ’80s. It […]
Tweet Those of you who travel more than I do (these days, I hardly leave my house!) probably noticed this before, but it’s the first time I’ve run into it. As I mentioned, we took a quick trip to Memphis a few days back, and while we were there, I looked at my phone and […]
Tweet Hey, y’all. I’ve been out of pocket for a few days. We drove to Memphis on Friday, came back yesterday, and boy are my arms tired. Yeah, I know that old joke doesn’t really work there, but I’m wiped out and not fully functional at the moment. But I thought I’d share this with […]
Tweet Here I am doing an Open Thread twice in one week. It’s almost like I’m getting serious about this blogging thing again. Well, that remains to be seen, but I hope you enjoy it… Joe goes to Europe — Here’s hoping the sane countries of the world continue to show a united front against […]
TweetHave I even done one of these this year? Well, I’m doing one now: Ukraine Refuses to Surrender Mariupol; Thousands Trapped — Or, I could have brought up one of many other angles. I don’t know what to say beyond the fact that I want it to end as soon as possible — with Russia […]
Tweet Just thought I’d toss out something for all you sports fans to scoff at. Here’s the story that explains my system for predicting the men’s NCAA tournament. It’s thoroughly tried and tested: I used to never do this, until back in the late 80s or early 90s, when one of my reporters — I’ll […]
Tweet Maybe you don’t see a shooting in Collierville, Tenn. — a suburb of Memphis — as close, but in my family we do. And not just because my wife is from Memphis. You see that picture above, taken from a TV news report? The tall guy with the beard is Kevin, our nephew — […]
TweetFor a couple of months, I’ve had in mind a certain blog post, but haven’t written it because of the time it would take — time I don’t have. The basic idea was this: As you know, I’m sick and tired of the usual stupid news stories with ideologues yelling about whether people should, for […]