Day 781: The Classic Time-Wasters

originally published February 19, 2014 If you are fortunate enough to possess a job of such little consequence that you can while away your clocked hours with fanciful amusements and digital distractions, then you have probably logged a lot of hours with Microsoft’s built-in activities. Myself, I prefer to devote my daytime downtime to writing […]

Day 780: Evil Aboard Flight 8969

originally published February 18, 2014 When the doctrine of reason is flushed in favor of instinct and terror, the inevitable contusion of blood and debris is fairly predictable. Terrorists, who have been at their game for millennia in some form or another, simply don’t win. That is to say, while they can notch a namesake […]

Day 779: Full Moon Fever

originally published February 17, 2014 Even for those of us who don’t hang their spiritual hats upon the rack of organized religion, there exists the very real possibility that we are cosmically intertwined with forces and energies mightier (and invisiblier) than our own. Some of these forces – gravity, aging, the uncontestable craving for pizza […]

Day 778: The Doctor Of Doom

originally published February 16, 2014 Once a half-century has elapsed since the final sonorous thump of a trial-ending gavel, one would expect that the truth had found the time to leak out. But the case of John Bodkin Adams remains as cloaked in murk and interpretation as it ever was. Even when the facts are […]

Day 777:7

originally published February 15, 2014 What is your favorite number? It’s an odd question, if you really stop to think about it. Why have a favorite number? Okay, maybe it’s the number that was splashed across your jersey when you played high school basketball. Perhaps you hit it big with a fortuitous spin of the […]

Day 776: Of Fingers And Knuckles And Such

originally published February 14, 2014 Faced with the prospect of a sixth trip to the dentist in two months for the same misbehaving molar, I find myself begrudgingly short on optimism for today. Rather than delve through another tale of a corrupt world or criminal conspiracy (both of which usually keep me perpetually entertained), I’m […]

Day 775: The Case Of The $67 Million Pants

originally published February 13, 2014 As some of you may be aware, I am almost sort of a lawyer, kind of. I grant myself this professional designation because I studied for and subsequently wrote the LSAT exam about five years ago. And while I scored high enough to warrant getting black-out drunk and celebrating for […]

Day 774: Beware The Madness Of Jerusalem & Paris

originally published February 12, 2014 A few days ago, I attempted to bake a word-brew that would adequately (or at least semi-adequately) justify the singular importance of the Beatles’ inaugural appearance in American culture on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. We all know what followed that show – the British phenomenon known as Beatlemania spent the next few years pummeling […]

Day 773: Tales Of The Almost-Assassins

originally published February 11, 2014 Plotting the demise of a sitting United States president requires an impeccable form of madness, a meticulous disregard for common sense and a commitment to scratching the rest of one’s life off of one’s to-do list. Presidential assassins are not known for having impressive lifespans after pulling the trigger. Oswald […]

Day 772: Shock & Roll

originally published February 10, 2014 These days it seems that if a musical artist wishes to ‘shock’ their audience they either have to piss in a hotel mop bucket or declare themselves to be a genius whilst naming their offspring after a compass direction. Where are the ornithological decapitations? The pseudo-sanguine fluid cascading from a […]