Older Posts

  • Return of the Prince

    In the late 1990s, I got my first email account. Every so often, I’d receive an email, as everyone did, from a Nigerian prince who wanted to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams. All I needed to do was send him some money and bank routing numbers, and it would all fall into place.…

  • Hoppers

    I can honestly say that this is an animated film at which you can take a nice relaxing nap. I see a lot of animated films with my children and I cannot always do that. Five stars for restfulness.

  • Never Buy a Dell

    I purchased a Dell laptop in December. Three months later, it won’t boot up. I called Dell support and they tell me the fact that it won’t boot up is my problem, not theirs, not covered by warranty. Incredible. Dell used to make serviceable machines, but no longer. Avoid them and get a Lenovo or…

  • Fail Better

    Many years ago, when I was taking a graduate creative writing workshop, a well-known novelist instructor of mine commented that my story, set on a college campus, did not compare well with similar books by Philip Roth, Jane Smiley, Richard Russo, and other exemplars of the genre. She was correct. My story was in no…

  • Promotional Fees May Apply

    Given the direction MLB and the Mets have been heading, I will not give them a cent this year, and will pay less attention than I have for many years. I recently posted about my disgust: I’m sick of the greed and the ownership and the corruption of the sport. But I’m writing tonight’s post…

  • The Devil in a Forest by Gene Wolfe (1976)

    Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite writers, and this is a wonderful book of his that I found some years after reading his epic Book of the New Sun, an amazing series that I want to reread soon. Unlike that dense, lengthy work, this is a shorter novel of mystery, adventure and myth, but…

Adaptations AI animated movies Blues Boardgames book-review Books Carl Sagan Christmas Comedy Comic Books Comics Coming of Age Fantasy fiction film Folk George RR Martin Halloween HIstory Horror Jethro Tull Libraries Movies music Poetry Poughkeepsie Book Festival Progressive Rock Reading Reviews rock Roger Zelazny Science Fiction Short Stories Stephen King Summer Tad Williams The Chronicles of Amber The Osprey Man Tolkien Winter Solstice writing YA Young Adult zombies