The latest 100 posts, with excerpts

  • American catharsis (1/21/2021) - It’s gone. The malevolent incompetence that plagued our nation for four years is finally gone. Or at least its chief instigator is gone. And yesterday we celebrated. Oh, how we […]
  • The Hill We Climb (1/20/2021) - At noon today Joseph R. Biden Jr. became the 46th President of the United States. But 22-year-old Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest ever […]
  • Scarlet letters not enough (1/18/2021) - Two scarlet letters for Donald Trump are meaningless. So what if the history books can note that he’s the only president in history to be impeached twice? Impeachment is little […]
  • Your Covid vaccination — to be or not to be (1/14/2021) - Everything about the Covid-19 vaccine distribution has been in a state of chaos since it began. Uneven, uncertain distribution to a wide assortment of destinations. Some getting more than they […]
  • you are here. (1/12/2021) - Originally posted on I didn't have my glasses on....:
    ? ? — “here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. there is no why.” -kurt vonnegut ?…
  • Haunted by a song (1/11/2021) - The song “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield was released in 1967.
  • This isn’t Viet Nam (1/11/2021) - For those too young to remember, during the Viet Nam war an American major was quoted as saying, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” That morphed […]
  • Food for thought (1/10/2021) -
  • Belated but hearty congratulations to new Georgia senators (1/10/2021) - Almost lost in coverage of the invasion of the US Capitol on January 6 was the news that Georgia had just elected two new Democratic US senators, Jon Ossoff and […]
  • Rioters, vandals, insurrectionists, anarchists … and stupid (1/8/2021) - Call them what you will, those people who invaded the US Capitol on January 6, but be sure to include “stupid.” Most of them didn’t wear masks because they somehow […]
  • Off with his head (1/7/2021) - Who among us will ever forget what we witnessed yesterday? Thousands of rioters, incited by the President of the United States himself, storming the US Capitol, breaking into the building, […]
  • Beneath contempt (1/6/2021) -    
  • Vaccination vexation (1/5/2021) - As I understand it, each state orders and distributes its own supply of Covid-19 vaccine, and the US government may or may not be able to supply all that a […]
  • 2020 retrospectives? No thanks (1/2/2021) - Goodbye and good riddance. Those are my feelings about the end of 2020. All those interesting year-end retrospectives I used to enjoy? Not this year. Who wants to dwell on […]
  • Happy New Year! We made it! (1/1/2021) - Wishing you health, wealth, and happiness in the new year  
  • New Year’s Eve and fingers crossed (12/31/2020) -
  • I almost forgot Pantone’s Color of the Year (12/30/2020) - I’m about a month late, I think, in writing about Pantone’s Color(s) of the Year selection for 2021. Perhaps that’s because I’m not crazy about their combination of yellow and […]
  • Merry Christmas from Colorado (12/25/2020) -
  • Better than a fruitcake (12/21/2020) - After all these months, we’re getting a whopping $600 per person from Congress in stimulus (Covid relief) money. Sure, it will help for Christmas, but in the Denver metro that’s […]
  • Holly is not mistletoe (12/19/2020) - I first published the article below back in 2012, but having just watched “The Masked Singer,” I feel compelled to reprint it. On the show Robin Thicke was given a […]
  • All I want for Christmas … (12/18/2020) - Yes, I actually chuckled at the originality of this cartoon. But that doesn’t change the fact that I am mad as hell at Congress for putting politics above a months-ovedue […]
  • It’s so much more than a mere tattoo (12/16/2020) - This Super Dad spent 30 hours getting a tattoo to match his son’s birthmark so his son would no longer be self-conscious. Now they have something to share for life. […]
  • I am the storm (12/15/2020) - Fate whispers to the warrior, ‘You cannot withstand the storm.’ The warrior whispers back, ‘I am the storm.’ — Unknown Such bravado! Nevertheless, the screenshot is me — er, my character — in Assassin’s Creed […]
  • Return of the Grammar Grinch (12/14/2020) - I try mightily to maintain my composure when the English language goes off the rails, but having spent my working years as an editor makes it difficult. Being “old and […]
  • Let nothing stop the vaccine deliveries (12/10/2020) - In Colorado this week there have been several test runs of Covid vaccine delivery. Packages frozen like the Pfizer vaccine have been tracked and delivered from Denver to points in […]
  • I appreciate you! Pass it on (12/10/2020) - I was reminded today by the young man who delivered my groceries that I am deeply appreciative of so many people who’ve helped get me through this year. This young […]
  • A wee little Christmas complaint (12/8/2020) - Longtime readers (all three of you) might have noticed a lack of holiday complaints here this year. Usually they start back in October, with observations about the first appearance of […]
  • You won’t believe your eyes (12/7/2020) - Focus only on the cross in the middle and the familiar, recognizable faces become grotesque: The explanation for this is on Bright Side, a website full of nothing but happy, […]
  • About those preemptive pardons (12/4/2020) - Am I the only one wondering about those preemptive pardons Trump might issue? Doesn’t such a pardon suggest that the person pardoned has likely committed a crime of some kind? […]
  • Humans removed the Utah monolith … and others (12/1/2020) - The mysterious monolith in the Utah desert disappeared Friday night, November 27. And as it turns out, there were witnesses to its removal. Photographer Ross Bernards and several friends were […]
  • Meet Hancock the hypocrite (11/30/2020) - This is Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. By now you may recognize him because he’s been in the national news this week. Why? Because after nine months of cautioning us about […]
  • About that Utah monolith (11/29/2020) - It’s gone. The mysterious, gleaming monolith in the Utah desert is gone. In its place, a sad little cairn. Now we are left to speculate about who removed it Friday […]
  • Second best story of the week (11/27/2020) - The mysterious, unexplained Utah monolith was discovered by helicopter pilots who were out counting bighorn sheep in a rugged part of the state. Spectacular, isn’t it? Beautiful in its simplicity. […]
  • Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving (11/26/2020) - The years have flown by, but this 1943 (my birth year) Saturday Evening Post cover illustration by Norman Rockwell will always be my Thanksgiving. This is how it looked when […]
  • A return to dignity (11/25/2020) - Yesterday President-elect Joe Biden introduced some of his cabinet nominees and appointees. I didn’t see the live event but I was particularly impressed by the staging. And I’m not even […]
  • Never attack a man’s dog (11/23/2020) - This story was all over the news today, but in case you missed it, here it is again. As John Wick would tell you, never mess with a man’s dog. […]
  • Not your average bull in a china shop (11/20/2020) - “Donald Trump is a bull who carries his own china shop with him.” — Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University
  • Trump admits, briefly, that Biden won (11/15/2020) - Despite all the baseless claims that follow, it’s the first two words that count: “He won.” Now we know that he knows, even if he never formally concedes. But then, […]
  • Pfizer’s cool vaccine is coming soon (11/13/2020) - An America exhausted by 2020 is understandably excited about Pfizer’s recently announced Covid-19 vaccine. In its Phase Three study, the vaccine proved to be 90% effective (!) in preventing infection […]
  • Honoring all who served (11/11/2020) - Veterans Day 2020 “In war there are no unwounded soldiers.”— Jose Narosky Thank you, veterans everywhere!
  • So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye (11/10/2020) -
  • A happy homecoming (11/10/2020) -
  • We must never forget (11/9/2020) - “Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”   — Voltaire, Questions sur les Miracles, 1765
  • History will remember (11/8/2020) - I grabbed this screenshot yesterday just so I could savor it again and again. It seemed worth saving.
  • Congratulations, President-Elect Joe Biden! (11/7/2020) -
  • Grandma’s still gaming — more than ever (11/6/2020) - For the one or two readers who might be wondering, let me assure you that I am still gaming — more than ever since the pandemic started. After a very […]
  • Still waiting, still worried (11/5/2020) - (Okay, I confess it took me a second to understand this cartoon, but it is very apropos for that half of the country that is waiting anxiously for word that […]
  • One million one, one million two … (11/4/2020) - Here we are, the day after Election Day, and as expected, the vote counting continues. The race for President could still go either way, and anxiety still grips the nation. […]
  • For better or worse, it’s Election Day (11/3/2020) - Today is Election Day in the US and it’s going to be a very long day. Polls will be open in some states until 9 pm local time (up to 1 am […]
  • It’s Election Day eve — and I’m afraid (11/2/2020) - Tomorrow, November 3, is Election Day 2020. And I am anxious. Very anxious. I’ve a knot in my gut that won’t go away. I feel like the nation’s future is […]
  • Farewell, DST (11/1/2020) - Did you remember to change all your clocks last night? I got all but the one in the car. Oh, and my watch. And the little clock on the mantle. […]
  • Happy Halloween, everybody! (10/31/2020) -
  • How to get your message across … or not (10/30/2020) - I found this photo on Westword, Denver’s alternative newspaper. The accompanying article, “Worst Arguments From the Denver Gazette’s Trump Endorsement,” had drawn me there, but the photo really spoke volumes. […]
  • Hey you, wear your damn mask (10/29/2020) - This graph first appeared on the internet in late June, but nothing has changed. Nothing has changed! We’re now entering our third wave of Covid-19. If the second wave was […]
  • Justice Kavanaugh lives down to expectations (10/29/2020) - Who can forget his confirmation hearings: Kavanaugh ‘belligerent and aggressive’ when drunk … or sober. And this week, he proffered his not-so-carefully-researched official Supreme Court opinion on counting election ballots: […]
  • The Trumpian legacy (10/28/2020) -
  • Think of it as more time to vote (10/28/2020) -      
  • Snow! Glorious snow! (10/27/2020) - Never have so many people wished so fervently for a snowstorm. Forest fires were ravaging northern Colorado on Friday. Thousands had been evacuated from their homes in Grand Lake, Granby, […]
  • Damn, another dream shattered (10/26/2020) -
  • All of Estes Park ordered to evacuate (10/22/2020) - Colorado Governor Jared Polis has just announced that Estes Park residents are being asked to evacuate because of all the fires in the area. Not to mention the lousy air […]
  • Fire closes Rocky Mountain National Park (10/22/2020) - Late yesterday the East Troublesome fire near Granby, Colo., blew up and raced east at the rate of 100 acres per minute. That’s 100,000 acres since yesterday. Evacuation orders for […]
  • Consider the consequences (10/21/2020) -
  • Forest Service closes north Colorado forests (10/21/2020) - Extreme, historic fire conditions exist in the forests of northern Colorado, with fires seeming to spring up almost daily. With that in mind, the US Forest Service has taken unusual […]
  • This is firefighting in Colorado (10/19/2020) - Firefighting in Colorado’s mountains is tough. Really tough. Temperatures, precipitation, and wind can change in minutes. And this is in addition to rough, often steep terrain and high elevation. (Remember, […]
  • New: Weather and landscape photo winners (10/19/2020) -
  • Don’t look now, but … (10/18/2020) - Yep, another fire. This one is the Lefthand Canyon fire. The evacuation area is just southwest of the still-burning Calwood fire northwest of Boulder, Colo. Lefthand Canyon runs west from […]
  • Colorado’s Cameron Peak fire now visible from Estes Park (10/17/2020) - The Cameron Peak fire, now the largest in Colorado history, continues to burn from west to east and is visible from vantage points in Estes Park. It has consumed more […]
  • I voted today (10/14/2020) - As I sat here yesterday marking my mail-in ballot, I watched the long, long lines in Texas on their first day of early voting. All I can say is thank […]
  • Yes indeed, your president plays the accordion (10/8/2020) - In the not-too-distant past, I read a comment about Trump “playing the accordion” — a reference to his characteristic gesture of spreading his hands apart, then bringing them together, then […]
  • New England Journal of Medicine gets political (10/7/2020) - Editors at The New England Journal of Medicine have come together in an editorial condemning the Trump administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Titled “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,” the […]
  • The immor(t)al Donald Trump (10/5/2020) - Yesterday, shortly after releasing a video in which he declared, “I get it,” Pres. Donald Trump left his Walter Reed hospital room and commandeered his personal vehicle to drive past […]
  • It’s about the light (10/4/2020) - Seeking an escape from unrelentingly awful news, I visited Erik Stensland’s “Images of RMNP.” And as usual I was met with dozens of beautiful shots of Rocky Mountain National Park, […]
  • The WordPress apple cart (10/4/2020) - WordPress really upset the apple cart a few nights ago by converting all users to their new “block editor.” Readers who don’t blog on WP won’t understand or care what […]
  • Trump tests positive for Covid-19 (10/2/2020) - Well, well, it seems the chickens have finally come home to roost. Donald and Melania Trump have tested positive for coronavirus. And they have begun their “quarantine and recovery process” […]
  • Debate solution: Zoom (9/30/2020) - Covid-safe, socially distanced, from the comfort of one’s home. No mask required. That’s Zoom. That’s the solution for the next presidential debate. If either candidate gets out of line, goes […]
  • Re Tuesday’s presidential ‘debate’ (9/29/2020) - Good lord what a horror show. I suggest the rest of the debates be canceled. There’s absolutely no point in continuing unless Trump can be silenced. In lieu of cancellation, […]
  • Wishful thinking (9/29/2020) - This, of course, should have happened the moment Trump issued his first tweet.
  • Opinion piece offers rays of hope for democracy (9/23/2020) - In The Guardian today, political speechwriter David Litt contends “Republicans will replace RBG but Democrats hold the trump cards – no, really.”  He suggests several ways in which Democrats can, […]
  • Hypocrites, lame ducks, and the Supreme Court (9/22/2020) - Originally published here on December 19, 2010: Back in November 2008, after the election, I wrote about the need for a 28th amendment to the Constitution. Said amendment would reduce the length […]
  • Best Biden commercial I’ve seen (9/21/2020) - Stephen Colbert ran this tonight and I got a big laugh from it. I don’t know if it’s a legitimate ad or not but given the formatting, I suspect it […]
  • Justice Ginsburg, champion for gender equality, dead at 87 (9/18/2020) - Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933 – 2020 R.I.P.
  • First it was toilet paper (9/18/2020) - This has been a year of one frustration after another. A big one for me, self-isolating since March and dependent on delivered groceries, is not being able to get a […]
  • Burning like Washington (9/15/2020) - A tree burns in California — from the base and from the inside. Aerial slurry drops don’t help because they can’t penetrate the forest’s thick upper canopy. Control ultimately requires […]
  • Something old is new again (9/13/2020) - This morning I stumbled across this item on the Hammacher Schlemmer website. It’s billed as “the world’s only four-wheeled rowing cycle.” Well, it may be the only one now, but […]
  • Once, we were united … (9/11/2020) -
  • About Colorado’s Cameron Peak fire (9/9/2020) - The national media are focused on the California wildfires, and rightly so. They far surpass Colorado’s fires in size and threat to life and property. But here in Colorado, along […]
  • If only (8/31/2020) - I was rummaging through a box in the garage recently and found this — a Christmas card I received maybe forty or fifty years ago. I liked it so much […]
  • Another funny cat tale (8/26/2020) - Fair warning: Put your drink down before watching. A dozen views later and I still ROFL. But then, I’m a lifelong cat lover. Cat standing on his own tail from […]
  • A better metaphor (8/25/2020) - Three months ago I mentioned a reporter who opined that a dumpster fire was the perfect metaphor for the year 2020. And I agreed with him. Until I saw this […]
  • In case I wasn’t clear about voting (8/18/2020) - If you didn’t get my point the other day — the one about doing whatever is necessary to make sure your vote gets counted in November — here’s how Tom […]
  • About those mail-in ballots (8/15/2020) - “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” While the Postal Service has no official motto, the […]
  • Those silly Katmai bears (8/14/2020) - Here they are again, those brown bears that catch salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. They sit there casually above the falls or below while fish practically […]
  • Look out, Donald, here they come! (8/12/2020) - Well, Joe Biden’s out of his basement, and Kamala Harris is with him. Donald Trump had better watch out because neither of them is to be trifled with. Yours truly […]
  • The sun also rises (8/9/2020) - Estes Park photographer Erik Stensland probably isn’t thinking about politics when he’s in Colorado’s high country capturing images like this. After all, when you’re in the mountains, they fill your […]
  • Can we please just skip the rest of 2020? (8/6/2020) - I’m not the only one who saw the first videos from Beirut Tuesday and immediately thought “nuke.” But the thought passed as quickly as the mushroom-shaped cloud itself — unlike […]
  • Kanye gets on Colorado ballot (8/6/2020) - Well, isn’t this special. Kanye West is following through on his threat/promise to run for US president. And here in Colorado, he’s made it onto the ballot as an Unaffiliated […]
  • It’s back! ‘Vote Him Away #2’ (8/3/2020) - YouTube’s hugely popular “Vote Him Away (The Liar Tweets Tonight)” is back with all new lyrics and video. Enjoy! Copious kudos to Roy Zimmerman and The ReZisters featuring Peggy Seeger, […]
  • Yes, please move the election (8/3/2020) -
  • Fee-fi-fo-fraud (8/2/2020) - The Orange One is starting to sound a little desperate about his standing in the polls (ie, way behind Joe Biden). All his blabbering about mail-in ballot fraud is utterly […]
  • Deny science at your peril … and mine (7/27/2020) - The pandemic is real. Covid-19 is real, and it’s killing people, people of all ages. Believe the doctors, the scientists, the facts. Please wear a mask, keep your distance, and […]