The Adventures of Roberta X

      A commenter asked, "What's a dungaree, anyway?"      It turns out that's quite a question.  The easy answer is that...

      I finished John Kenneth Galbreath's book about the stock market crash and, almost in passing, its connection to the Great Depressi...

     Commenting, it would be nice if some of you'd look up how paying tariffs actually works, and if you want to ring in Marxists in con...

     Already flirting with fatigue, chairing the writer's critique group yesterday left me tired and out of sorts.  It's fun neverth...

     "Shaghala baghala" was making the rounds on social media the other day; it is claimed to be a Swahili term that means "c...

     After working today, I'm off all this week.  Tamara K has been sick since Friday, a rattling cough that got worse and worse.  It ap...

     The United States Senate is supposed to be the "senior body," the place where wise legislators serving long terms weigh new l...

     Working on a story of a themed anthology and came up with one I really liked.  But by the time the protagonist had been confronted by t...

     Over on what used to be Twitter, I had a guy who kept asking me about the software I use to write.      It's a stranger question th...

      Yes, with a groan of the starter and fingers crossed that there won't be too much old-gasoline varnish in the carburetor, the Ling...

     I needed to bore a 7/8" hole in the top of my nightstand, so I could permanently mount the "microphone boom" that holds ...

      There's a problem that afflicts skilled tradespeople, engineers and those working in the professions (science, medicine, law): Exp...

      "He leapt into his Ford Model T, engaged the starter and floored the accelerator pedal once the engine caught...."       Wo...

      Words mean things.  Sometimes words mean a lot of things.  When you read blogs, opinion pieces and news stories, when you post things...

      Today I Learned that Herr Fahrenheit 's initials were "G.D."  I also learned it's 20 degrees G. D. Fahrenheit outsid...

      Children called to account for their actions in a group setting, often complain about the unfairness of it all -- what about all those...

      A lot of people slept through Civics or U.S. Government class in high school; a lot of people slept through every U. S. History class ...

     We had one of our gatherings this evening and I think it went well.  Lots of good discussion and much to learn from the manuscript we w...

     Here's a handy set of tools for evaluating if something's nonsense or factual , no matter what your political inclinations.  ...

     Our native and imported Indiana writers are a mixed lot but many are markedly cynical.  Few have had as sharp a tongue as (Indiana-rais...