Blogroll

What happened to that peace dividend?

With the Cold War being waged for more than half my life, I was among the many millions fascinated with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Twenty years ago today, the East German government — intentionally or not — opened up its borders. For most, it is also perhaps the most substantive symbol of the […]

Weekend Edition: 11-7

Bulletin Board

I had the pleasure of speaking about blogging this week at the Newspaper Writing: Critical/Editorial course offered by Augie’s English/Journalism programs

If only I’d known earlier, a personal dream would come true tonight. Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle (the greatest […]

Friday Follies 1.20 (headline edition)

Sometimes the headlines (and subheads) say it all:

Man caught nude in truck uses the “explosive diarrhea” defense.

Woman Calls 911, Says Boyfriend Won’t Marry Her Same Person Called 911 Saying She Couldn’t Find Car (Via.)

Giant Breathalyzer Found Drunk in Ohio.

Man stabs himself so he doesn’t have to go to his job at […]

Is gender germane in picking “best of” lists?

There was an uproar in the interweb/blogosphere/social media worlds this week when someone noted that Publishers Weekly‘s list of the Top 10 Books of 2009 did not include any female authors. Frankly, I didn’t notice until I saw a post about it. And while this may diving into hot water it might be wise to […]

Buy Books for the Holidays

I’m one of those who always rants about how early Christmas stuff shows up each year. So it may be somewhat hypocritical for me to join a new book blogger effort called Buy Books for the Holidays. But I think there’s excellent reasons for doing so.

First, it’s something I’ve been doing for many years. […]