I cringe every time I see an ad for “high-speed” this-or-that cabling, such as USB(1) cables. I cringe because undoubtedly many people now believe that “speed” has something to do with the cabling. Trust me: it’s a piece of wire Read more…
No slur on the Japanese, here; none at all. They are good, creative, hard working people, with a rich national identity and great sense of Business all over the World. However… I was looking through eBay for some World War Read more…
This is taken from Frank Herbert’s magnificent Dune series, specifically The Children of Dune [the third of six books]. The story and the series have never yet been done properly in video, perhaps never will be. Frankly, the work is too broad, Read more…
The movie In Harm’s Way with John Wayne(1), I’ve been watching that movie for a very long time, off and on, now and then. Here’s something I never thought about, ’til just a moment ago… Really, just a moment ago. Read more…
If you remember or otherwise know about the Road Runner, haven’t you ever wondered why so much of the stuff the Coyote buys from ACME Corporation backfires on him? I certainly did. Over and over, those fancy contraptions he would Read more…
There’s a “hoity-toity” thing that goes on among some Tea drinkers: that the water should be brought almost to boiling, but not all the way there. Full boil is called “burning the tea.” Turns out they may be right, but for Read more…
There’s this Big Thread in our culture about companies, neighbors, businesses “keeping you safe.” Doing things / not doing things in order to keep you safe. Whether that’s restricting your ability smoke near my door, requiring a CoVid mask, putting up Read more…
So, someone “got all over me” the other day for using the English neutral pronoun “he” — which is distressingly like the masculine pronoun(1) — and said (this person said), “I don’t do gender identification and I take it personally Read more…
There’s always this war between the generations. Seems like it, anyway. I suspect it was not always that way, but explaining why I think so isn’t in scope of this posting. This is just a simple observation. The Old distrust Read more…
So there I am in the middle of some work on the computer and Bang! an ad pops up offering me the secret to get rid of unwanted ads. Apparently the irony here never occurred to Those Who Create Stupid Read more…
There was once a rather important part of politics and Good Government, called the “let’s get a report card,” or telephone polling. You can see it in some of the episodes of West Wing, for example and other political / pseudo-political Read more…
My favorite John Adams quote (used in the play/movie 1776, and also appearing in his diaries) I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace That two are a law firm and that three or more Read more…
You can’t tell me we you didn’t see this coming… I mean the times we are living in. The craziness(1), the near-civil war hysteria of “it’s your fault (and never my fault)” that’s going round and round. Don’t tell me Read more…
Just a couple thoughts for movie reviewers. One, when I see (words to the effect of) “just like blah-blah meets blah-blah” as in a collision of two other movies and neither one is a title I recognize, I instantly know Read more…
I work with a lot of movies(1), and I’ve noticed something a little disturbing. There are almost no “G” rated movies any more. Some of that is that the movie rating system (in America, this is, other nations ratings run Read more…
I don’t normally spend a lot of time deeply analyzing 30+ year old movies, but I was sitting some place the other day where the Schwarzenegger movie Total Recall (1) was playing and a few things struck me. Been a Read more…
Out walking this morning I came across a Red Cross coach… some kind of big bus thing converted to some use of the Red Cross’. I assume drawing blood or some such thing. There was no signage out, no identification Read more…
Dear Wall Street Journal: A friend of mine tried to share an article of yours with me. Sent me the link. I clicked on the link and got about two sentences with the rest held hostage against my subscribing to Read more…
I just noticed the most extraordinary statement on a DVD (which movie is not relevant). “No copying, Subject to applicable laws.” Aside from being an incomplete sentence, and mispunctuated to boot — does that invalidate it as a binding legal Read more…
I don’t dance, not in any formal sense. Started to get lessons once (when I was 7 more or less) and then we moved again, and never got back to it. Adrian to Rocky: “Why do you want to be Read more…