It seems strangely appropriate to use this sports-themed post for a bit of score-keeping: Welcome to Post #900, y’all! Weekend Assignment #269: Are you a sports fan? If so, what’s your favorite? Do you follow many sports, just a few sports, or only one? If not, what is it about sports that leaves you cold? I talked about my fondness for baseball in a post here last month – and that’s pretty much the extent […]
Category: ‘riting
It was not to BEA…but it was on Twitter!
I had heard of the annual Book Expo America conference and trade show before this year, but to my knowledge it was a book-industry thing not open to civilians. Either I was wrong about that in the first place, or book bloggers aren’t considered “civilians” – we’re “new media.” At BEA 2009 this past weekend in New York City, the programming included a book-blogger panel (including my Festival of Books friends Amy and Natasha), which […]
Because someone asked: Blogging about Blogging
Ms. Mazzola at State of Denmark has taken on a “senior project” of her own to keep her students company; she’s doing some research on blogs and blogging. She’s posted some questions for bloggers, and if you’d like to be part of her unscientific, self-selected survey group, you’re welcome to answer them on your own blog and leave a link in the comments on the “project” post. This is my contribution to the effort. It’s […]
Flashback: 1979 (Weekend Assignment #267)
In honor of her 30th wedding anniversary – which is TODAY! Happy Anniversary, Karen and John! – Karen has invited us to take a trip back in time: Weekend Assignment #267: On Tuesday, John and I will have been married to 30 years. If you’re old enough to remember the late 1970s, please tell us what you were up to way back then. If not, pretend I asked about the late 1980s. If you’re too […]
Trial by Jury, part two: The letter of the law
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the class of the charges in this trial was “criminal misdemeanor.” The substance of the charges was domestic dispute; a husband was defending himself against one count of spousal battery for physical restraint of his wife, and two counts of child abuse. The child abuse specified was not physical in nature, but considered “child endangerment” and “mental suffering” arising from the trauma of breaking up a physical altercation between […]
Trial by Jury, part one: My day(s) in court
They are two words that send shudders down the spine: JURY DUTY. Many are called, but when it comes down to it, few are chosen. I’ve been getting summoned every year for the last three or four years, but this was the first time in several years that I was called to a panel, and my very first time serving on a jury. If they call you, you must come. The first time I was […]
TV in My Memory (Weekend Assignment #266)
Weekend Assignment #266: The release of the blockbuster Star Trek prequel movie reboots a franchise for a cult TV show that had a huge impact on generations of SF TV viewers. Is there a TV series from your youth that you remember especially fondly? Extra Credit: Have you bought the aforementioned TV series on DVD? If not, would you if it were readily available at a reasonable price? Karen‘s own post for this Weekend Assignment […]
Bad mothers, good mothers, and mothers who think about motherhood
If you would have asked me at 18, I would never have predicted that by the time I was 45, I would have been a mother for over half my life. My son will be 25 this summer, and I’ve lived more of my life with him in it than without – I can’t imagine it otherwise, even if I try. There have been changes in our relationship as he’s grown, of course, and he […]
PC=”Problem Computer”: Weekend Assignment #265
Here’s an assignment Karen thought we could all relate to in one way or another: Weekend Assignment #265: If you’re a blogger, you almost certainly have a computer. If you have a computer, you’ve had computer problems. Did your monitor go dark? Hard drive get hacked? System go silent? Tell us a computer horror story! Extra Credit: Which has fewer problems, a PC or a Mac? My worst computer disaster happened at work a few […]
Weekly Geeks 2009-15: Critters in Literature (and film, too!)
This Weekly Geeks theme comes from animal lover Wendy of Caribousmom: How many of us remember a favorite pet from our childhood? Or have enjoyed visiting the zoo? Or relish in walking in the woods and hearing birdsong, or seeing a deer leap away through the brush? How many of us have been thrilled by a soaring eagle? How often have we sought the comfort of a dog or cat, or wept tears of loss […]
A poor citizen of Planet Earth (Weekend Assignment #264)
Inspired by last week’s observation of Earth Day, Karen asks: Weekend Assignment #264: A lot has changed since 1970, when the first Earth Day took place and had an unexpectedly large impact. In the current, uh, climate of global warming, eco-friendly marketing and recent attempts to gut environmental protections, how much of an effort do you make in your daily routine to help protect the environment?Extra Credit: Do you observe Earth Day in any way? […]
A minor league gal in a Major League town
Baseball’s back, baby! Play ball! I was raised on baseball. It’s a sport I can actually follow. Everyone takes his turn, and everyone has a specific job responsibility on the field. I can make sense out of it. I was raised on New York Yankees baseball, actually. My dad spent many hours of his youth and young adulthood in Yankee Stadium, where he saw many of the legends play with his own eyes, and at […]
