It seems that every modern, well-known author has a book adapted for film or video. To my way of thinking, these adaptations rob people of the ability to make pictures in their head. No one needs use their God-given imagination anymore, instead the medium implants images from one person’s perspective into the minds of all…

Poor Thomas’ Almanac for January 21:  In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S. But unlike today, she didn’t dress up as a vagina and march about to celebrate her accomplishment.

High school graduation, I lost my university scholarship and I needed to figure out what to do with my wide-open future. Thus, I applied for an internship in Chicago to work with a nationally-known broadcaster. I did well in the first two interviews. The final interview was in San Francisco. It was more of a…

As little old men went, Johnny had seen nearly everything – except for what he’d beheld only moments before. He had to shake his head and blink twice after seeing Mary Poppins, the newest Governess, draw a lengthy coat rack from her carpet-bag.  “Odd,” he muttered as he leaned over to have a peek inside…

Sigmund Freud believed flying dreams were a means of sexual release. But he thought that about everything. For me, taking flight begins with the ‘hop, skip, jump,’ like in track-and-field, ending in a gentle landing, running as if I were using a ram-air parachute. A friend of mine claims flying dreams represents freedom, hope, control,…

Awoke bone-stiff – old age perhaps – and there’s nothing I can do beyond remain mentally and emotionally young. The morning’s air is chilled, and I inhale it slowly, recalling the day’s chores ahead of me. The stars are unbelievable, glittering across a blackened sky. It was supposed to rain today, turning to snow –…

Recently, I met a Grunt who survived seven tours, three in Iraq, four in Afghanistan. During his last tour he got dysentery, but not quite bad enough to be sent home. The Skipper called him a malingerer, yet on his next ‘walk outside the wire’ he saved his squad from an ambush. Got a Purple…

“When you say ‘dog-speed,’ what do you mean?” I asked in response to her strange ‘good-bye.’ All I can think of are our dog’s. The eldest is 11-year’s old. He’s not as spry as he once was, enjoying sleeping on the couch and not being outside running with the others. Then there’s the middle dog,…

At the end of summer, a few days before the new school year would start, came the Del Norte County Fair. One of my favorite’s things was the ‘mystery grab bag,’ where for a quarter I could select a brown paper bag full of stuff. Sometimes it was full of crap, which was disappointing. Sometimes…

It’s been said that you shouldn’t buy a book in which the story begins with the weather. I don’t know why, because without the weather – what would any of us have in common to complain about. It would be a rare thing if we all agreed on the weather. The best example is the…