The Big Boy Graveyard

On road trips in my youth, watching the Bob’s Big Boy signs transition to Shoney’s Big Boy was often part of the adventure. As the franchises close, the cheerful burger-wielding statues have been rounded up and corralled, presumably for their own safety. Source: The Big Boy Graveyard Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio…

A Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme fatale

Rewatching ST:DS9 A duo of knobby-faced macguffin-hunters, bantering like the crooks from Home Alone, rough up a bumpy-foreheaded alien, then vaporize him. In Quark’s, Bashir is happily casting his friends Dax and O’Brien in his next unnamed-for-copyright-reasons British superspy holodeck adventure, Operation Nudge-Wink. Odo declines, looking uncomfortable. I had never seen this episode before. What…

Doctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 16) Smarmy hologram designer exposes a Bashir family secret, romances Leeta

Rewatching ST:DS9 Quark watches with detached bemusement as Rom backs out of declaring his interest in Leeta. As O’Brien celebrates a win over Bashir at darts, Dr. Zimmerman, a hologram researcher (whose face Star Trek fans will instantly know from the then-contemporary Trek series Voyager) says he’s here to make Bashir “immortal.” Starfleet has chosen…

Pater Noster Passenger Elevators

Some 50 years ago, my father took me to his office in Washington, DC. I believe he was working for the Social Security Administration as a technical writer. I remember he held tightly onto my hand as we used a moving lift like this.  The event was notable to young me for two reasons. One,…

Selling Point (Audio Drama)

I had fun recording this in the studio — with live foley artists!   Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme…This 1960s teenager knew the neighborhood that inspired August Wilson’s playsDoctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9…

Things Past #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 8) Odo confronts his reputation as a hero of the resistance

Rewatching ST:DS9 Sisko, Dax, Odo and Garak return from a conference on the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, where Garak got flak for his pro-Cardassian bias, and Odo is uncomfortable with his own reputation as a hero.  They’re in a runabout, so it’s no surprise that a plot contrivance particle field hits them before the opening…

Trials and Tribble-ations #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 6) Trivial Time Travel Tribble Tribute

Rewatching ST:DS9 Strait-laced time cops arrive on the station to demand “just the truth, Captain.”  Sisko’s voice-over informs us that on a trip to recover a Bajoran Plot Contrivance Orb, the Defiant picks up a passenger who would be strangely familiar to anyone who had seen any of Paramount’s extensive promotion for this episode, scheduled…

A former student working in SEO shared this. I miss Google classic.

Similar:'Most Transparent’ White House In History Keeps Majority Of Trump’s Remarks SecretMicrosoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy GraveyardStop sharing those unsourced memes about "be woke" and "God doesn't need soldiers" — here…A Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme…Pope Leo XIV…

‘People are rooting for the whale’: the strange American tradition of Moby-Dick reading marathons

When I went off to college to be an English major, my father (who passed last December at 90) told me a story about how his respected professor at Northwestern University spent a whole lecture on the seven levels of symbolism in Melville’s Moby-Dick. Being of an analytical mind and precise mind, my father copied…

I was perhaps a bit more conversational and chipper than usual during class today. A grinning student asked what I was drinking. (It really is just iced tea.)

I was perhaps a bit more conversational and chipper than usual during class today. A grinning student asked what I was drinking. (It really is just iced tea.) Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme…Doctor Bashir,…

As part of an ongoing feud over the rights to use a particular shade of ultra-black paint, artist Artist Stuart Semple legally changed his name to that of his rival, Anish Kapoor

As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor.   “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name…

If you like bloody, singing, punning demons you will love this show.

If you like bloody, singing, punning demons you will love this show. Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme…Doctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season…

I am not in the splash zone but still definitely out of my comfort zone. Support the arts in your community.

I am not in the splash zone but still definitely out of my comfort zone. Support the arts in your community. Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for…

I have a daughter who does things. If demon curses and buckets of stage blood are your thing, come have some campy fun this weekend in Greensburg. (I will not be seated in the splash zone.)

I have a daughter who does things. If demon curses and buckets of stage blood are your thing, join the fun this weekend in Greensburg. (I will not be seated in the splash zone.) Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy…

Did you see that guy’s license plate?

Did you see that guy’s license plate? Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a femme…Doctor Bashir, I Presume #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 16) Smarmy hologram des…Pater Noster Passenger ElevatorsAP wins reinstatement to White House events…

Stories from the Tall Tales Club – Episode 1 The Time Elephant

I’ve had a lot of fun in this new ensemble audio storytelling series.  Did I do a good job convincing my friends I really saw a time-traveling elephant? Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)'Most Transparent’ White House In History Keeps Majority Of Trump’s Remarks SecretMicrosoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased…

I came of age playing too many CD-ROM point-and-click adventure games to ignore these steep stairs. (Downtime in downtown #Pittsburgh.)

I came of age playing too many CD-ROM point-and-click adventure games to ignore these steep stairs. (Downtime in downtown #Pittsburgh.) Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player "Useless"The Big Boy GraveyardA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17) Odo falls for a…

The daughter is in “Very Berry Dead,” a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two weekends in Pittsburgh.

The daughter is in “Very Berry Dead,” a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two weekends in Pittsburgh. Similar:The Missing Will, by Agatha Christie (WAOB Audio Theatre)'Most Transparent’ White House In History Keeps Majority Of Trump’s Remarks SecretThe Big Boy GraveyardStop sharing those unsourced memes about "be woke" and "God doesn't need…

Delightfully geeky news story about a legal kerfuffle over typefaces

I’m very amused at this nerdy news story about some tension between a judge who asks for legible documents and a lawyer who files documents with flasher typography.   While I recognize that language changes and the distinction between “font” and “typeface” is unimportant to the general public, I teach my journalism students that historically…