Five of my all-time favorite stories by Harlan Ellison: “The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore”: not only my all-time favorite Ellison story, but one of the best pieces of short fiction I have ever read. “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”: one of only two stories that have ever really scared me. (Ray Bradbury has…
You’ve seen these Facebook groups: “1 million strong for [fill-in-the-blank].” These are almost always political, in support of the President, against the immigration bill, whatever it might be. I views these updates with a growing sense of ennui. My basic question is: what’s the point? Certainly 1 million people who “want the old Facebook interface…
I was asked by some good friends to provide an letter attesting to the fact that their marriage was legit. One of these friends is not a U.S. citizen and is in the process of getting a permanent green card. Apparently, one of the requirements is to prove that your marriage is not a sham…
In another life, I might have been a historian. I have a passion for history that ebbs and flows, but never goes away. (As a youngster, I had a similar passion for astronomy, which has also ebbed and flowed and never gone away.) It is difficult to describe why I am attracted to history. In…
Lately, I have been inundated with mailings offering to protect our home in the event that “tragedy strikes”. A typical letter starts of something like this: Dear Mr. Rubin, We feel certain that when you obtained your mortgage to purchase your home you intended to own it forever. In the event of an unexpected tragedy……
I sometimes wonder what quirks our little boy will inherit from me. Believe me when I say there are plenty to choose from. I got thinking about it this morning when I realized a subtle quirk I inherited from my father. When I arrived at work this morning, I went through my routine of looking…
The first rejection of a new story is always the most difficult one for me. The new story is complete, you’ve worked hard on it, trying to build into it what you’ve learned from previous rejections as well as new experiences you’ve added to your writing. You revise the story more carefully, you gather feedback…
During our delightful saunter through the bookstore on Friday, I paused longingly in the cartoon section, salivating over The Complete Far Side. I think that The Far Side by Gary Larson was the best cartoon ever done, although admittedly I was never big on cartoons or comics. (I’ve slowly made my way through the Peanuts…
It used to be you’d walk on an elevator and everyone else would dutifully ignore one another for no good reason other than that was the thing to do in an elevator. (Oh, sure there was the occasional wise-guy who’d comment on his rash or stand facing the corner, but those are the exceptions.) Nowadays,…
Just a couple of quick Happy Birthday shout-outs, first to my wittle sistuh, Jen Ashlock, and also to my friend, coworker, and champion of the Board Meetings, Leanna! Hope you have a great birthday, kiddos!
With my birthday a few weeks back, came numerous gifts, just about all of which turned out to be books or gift cards for books. These are always my absolute favorite gifts and so here are some of the recent arrivals, some of which I received for my birthday, and some of which I purchased…
This weekend was one of the few in which we didn’t have any particular plans with people, friends or family in town, or any type of travel or events to attend. So Saturday became chore day. We didn’t get started quite as early as we’d wanted to, but even so managed to get quite a…