(For a complete list of all posts, more than 3,000, see Archives, Complete)

• On the rocks (10/22/2018) - World on the rocks? Sure seems like it sometimes.  
• A reminder about Saudi Arabia (10/18/2018) - Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were Saudis.    
• Elizabeth Warren releases DNA test result (10/15/2018) - Look out, Donald. She’s coming for you. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), often mocked by Donald Trump as “Pocahontas,” this morning released results of a DNA test proving she has Native American blood. The full report comes from Stanford University professor... Read More ›
• Select-a-smile (10/14/2018) -
• Found another great Colorado photographer (10/12/2018) - Isn’t this lovely? I came across it on Twitter while browsing the internet this evening. The Denver photographer, Mike Kvackay, graciously gave me permission to share it with you. His professional site is on Facebook. Lake Isabelle is higher than... Read More ›
• Colorado snow joke (10/12/2018) - I woke up two days ago, smug about the hard freeze the night before (I read somewhere that a “hard freeze” is 28° or lower) because I’d had my sprinklers shut off several days earlier. Outside I heard a lot... Read More ›
• If you go down in the woods today (10/10/2018) - I’ve written several times about the Alaska brown bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve, and have included links to the webcams that follow their summer salmon fishing. What I didn’t know until I saw it in yesterday’s Washington Post... Read More ›
• Compass? What compass? (10/8/2018) -
• R.I.P peace of mind (10/6/2018) - Unintentionally I just caught the last few minutes of the roll call vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. It sounded like a countdown to … darkness. As expected, Kavanugh was confirmed. I am sick. Still, Supreme Court justices... Read More ›
• Kavanaugh: Res ipsa loquitur (10/4/2018) - Res ipsa loquitur. “The thing speaks for itself.” He’s a judge. He wants to be a bigger judge. He swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. He did not. ‘Nuff said.    
• Kavanaugh ‘belligerant and aggressive’ when drunk … or sober (10/1/2018) - In a statement released Sunday, Charles “Chad” Ludington, a Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh’s, said Kavanaugh was not truthful last week in his sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee: In recent days I have become deeply troubled by what... Read More ›
• Thank you, Archila and Gallagher! (9/29/2018) - The Democrats wouldn’t do it. The Republicans wouldn’t do it. But after Ana Maria Archila and Maria Gallagher cornered Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in an elevator yesterday and demanded he act, things started changing. When Sen. Flake returned to the... Read More ›
• Wanted: An objective third party assessment (9/28/2018) -
• A #MeToo message (9/26/2018) - Yesterday 81-year-old actor Bill Cosby, accused by more than a dozen women of sexual abuse, was sentenced to 3-10 years in Pennsylvania state prison. Classified as a “sexually violent offender” by the court, he will not be free on bond... Read More ›
• I’m registered to vote; are you? (9/25/2018) - This election year, it’s more important than ever that you vote and make your voice heard. Are you registered? Is your registration information up to date? If in doubt, check it out. Election Day is November 6.
• Foliage fling (9/22/2018) - Fall foliage photos are a dime a dozen in Colorado, but this one really caught my eye. I’ve tried for years to describe a brief walk I once took near Estes Park, and have always failed. This picture comes very... Read More ›
• Summing it up (9/21/2018) -
• Trump, from the standpoint of stupid (9/20/2018) - Need I say more?
• Time’s up for #MeToo (9/18/2018) - My son started to ask me a question yesterday, and the minute he said “Kavanaugh” I knew what he was thinking. I’d been thinking the same thing all day. Why is a woman, Christine Blasey Ford, only just now accusing Supreme... Read More ›
• Hail summer (9/17/2018) - Last spring there was a wind storm here that blew down fences, knocked over a large woody bush in my backyard, and peeled shingles off the house across the street. Maybe an 80% chance to get insurance to replace my... Read More ›
• Nature makes amends (9/16/2018) - If you can’t get into the mountains to enjoy the fall color, just watch the horizon at sunset. If you can’t see the western horizon from your location, there’s always this webcam in Denver’s City Park. I check it every... Read More ›
• Bring on the Blue Tsu (9/14/2018) - I want more than a mere Blue Wave of Democratic votes in November. I want more than a Big Blue Wave. I want a Blue Tsunami. A gigantic Big Blue Tsu. It won’t fix everything, but it will be a... Read More ›
• Through the clouds brightly (9/8/2018) - This is Colorado Springs, Colo., (elev. 6,035 ft) viewed through the clouds from a webcam on the summit of Pikes Peak (elev. 14,114 ft). I love the city’s glow on the underside of the clouds. Not something I see very... Read More ›
• Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen (9/8/2018) - Following up on my post yesterday about the anonymous op-ed author, don’t miss the Washington Post’s article “Who could have written the ‘resistance’ op-ed?” It lists no less than 26 Washington insiders who might have written the piece. With each... Read More ›
• Anonymous author: Hero or heretic? (9/7/2018) - By now you must have heard about the op-ed published in the New York Times two days ago, the one by an anonymous senior official in the White House. It’s titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump... Read More ›
• The leaves they are a changin’ (9/5/2018) - Okay, Colorado leaf peepers. Hope your car is gassed up and ready to go. The local forecasters have been reporting for a week now that the leaves in the high country are starting to turn — at least a week... Read More ›
• McCain Senate Office Building appears on Google maps (9/2/2018) - This week, after a proposal from Sen. Chuck Shumer (D-NY) that the Russell Senate Office Building be renamed to honor Sen. John McCain, a hacker decided to see how it would look on Google maps. (Maybe it was the same... Read More ›
• Joe Biden eulogizes John McCain (8/30/2018) - (Video freezes at :15, then continues at about :45)
• In Memoriam: Sen. John McCain (8/26/2018) - High Flight John Gillespie Magee, Jr. Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things You... Read More ›
• So Colorado: Avalanche rescue dog (8/23/2018) - (slow-loading video, please be patient:) Meet Tikka, Colorado’s newest avalanche rescue pup-in-training, and her handler, Erich. They are currently based at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area (aka A-Basin) west of Denver. And yes, she’s a golden retriever. On average, avalanches... Read More ›
• Guardian features 2018 Bird Photographer of the Year winners (8/21/2018) - I came across this photograph while browsing The Guardian this evening, and viewed full size, it just about blew the screen off my laptop. It’s easy to see why Pedro Jarque Krebs, Peru, won the top prize in the 2018... Read More ›
• Truth isn’t truth (8/19/2018) - Did you know that truth isn’t truth? Don’t take my word for it. Donald Trump’s lead attorney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, said so Sunday morning on Meet the Press. “When you tell me that he [Trump] should testify... Read More ›
• There was only one Aretha (8/17/2018) - Tears flowed here tonight when Stephen Colbert featured this video on his show. Aretha Franklin, at the Dec. 6, 2015, Kennedy Center Honors, sang “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.” She was 76 at the time, but proved... Read More ›
• Democracy requires a free press (8/16/2018) - Last week the Boston Globe called on American newspapers, large and small, to publish editorials today in defense of a free press. And while I’ve never been a professional reporter, I worked in publishing long enough to know that freedom... Read More ›
• Space Force? Seriously? (8/14/2018) - My grasp of reality is sometimes in doubt, but is our president serious about establishing a Space Force? Really? Space Force? Did no one tell him about Reagan’s defunct Star Wars proposal? I laughed when I first heard him announce... Read More ›
• Blue birds singing a song (8/7/2018) - Blue birds singing a song, Nothing but blue birds all day long …
• Me and my lyin’ eyes (8/6/2018) - You say you don’t believe in climate change. You don’t believe the ice packs are melting and the seas are rising. You say it’s all a hoax, that scientists are lying. Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t... Read More ›
• California burns, Colorado coughs (8/2/2018) - This is a screenshot from a Denver webcam in Cheesman Park on an average day: This is a screenshot from the same camera this afternoon: We’re being told the haze is smoke from the fires in California, with a minor... Read More ›
• Pardon my schadenfreude … (7/30/2018) - … But I just can’t help it. As I’ve said before: Facebook lack of privacy is old, old news Censorship on Facebook Facebook screw up Facebook: Still not your friend FTC slaps Facebook Further Facebook folly I should stop knocking Facebook, but …... Read More ›
• This, too, is America (7/27/2018) - The Angel City Chorale won a Golden Buzzer* this week on “America’s Got Talent” with their performance of “Baba Yetu.” The song’s composer, Christopher Tin, earned a Grammy for his work in 2005, making Civilization IV the first video game... Read More ›
• I confess (7/26/2018) - I confess. I was one of those confused, per the cartoon. I’m not into a lot of special diets or health foods or anything and I haven’t been a milk drinker since I was a kid. I only buy it... Read More ›
• TRUMP TWEETS AGAIN (7/24/2018) - SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE AWAY HIS PHONE BEFORE HE STARTS A WAR “THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR” HIS “DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH.”
• Kennel Club announces winning dog photographers for 2018 (7/23/2018) - The Kennel Club (in the UK) has announced the winners of its 2018 Dog Photographer of the Year competition. Dogs. Photography. What’s not to love? I found these photos on The Guardian, but there are many more from this year... Read More ›
• You can’t play fetch without a smart dog (7/22/2018) - I saw this on the local news this evening and although the little boy is adorable, my props go to the dog who knows how to keep the game going.
• We will break this night (7/22/2018) - In March of last year, I posted this old “Where the Hell is Matt?” video from 2012. A few days ago I came across it again, and I heard it in a whole new way. The chorus became an earworm... Read More ›
• Silence is acquiescence (7/19/2018) - Come on, Congress. Grow a pair! How much longer will you endure Trump’s lies, near-treasonous behavior, and muddled “double negative” explanations? Surely you can’t not understand that he’s throwing all of you, and the country, under the bus. He doesn’t... Read More ›
• Forever chasing webcams (7/18/2018) - It’s said the only constant in life is change. And that includes webcams. They come and go, fail and reappear. As a result, I have to constantly police my Colorado webcam page, trying to keep everything up to date. I... Read More ›
• Hey, it’s Friday the 13th (7/13/2018) - I rarely even notice when a Friday the 13th rolls around. But some people do, and it makes them very anxious. They have paraskevidekatriaphobia. There are a lot of reasons, explanations, suppositions, and theories about why and how Friday the... Read More ›
• Thai soccer team and coach safely out of cave (7/11/2018) - Twelve members of Thailand’s Wild Boars youth soccer team and their assistant coach were trapped deep in a cave for two weeks when monsoon rains began and water in the cave rose. But today, the last four boys and their... Read More ›
• Gamers are great!! (7/10/2018) - This is Mercy, a healer in the video game “Overwatch,” which I played quite a bit last winter. However, the story here is that the pink skin/outfit she’s wearing was a special fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Players... Read More ›
• Teddy bear picnic (7/6/2018) - If you go down in the woods today You’re sure of a big surprise If you go down in the woods today You’d better go in disguise! For every bear that ever there was Will gather there for certain Because... Read More ›
• Good riddance, Scott Pruitt (7/5/2018) - I couldn’t help smiling this evening when I came across this fortuitous placement of elements on a news site. Best of NBC news indeed. Best for any network … except maybe Fox. Pruitt’s resignation today was some of the best... Read More ›
• Survived another Fourth, no thanks to neighbors (7/5/2018) - Last night while I was busily cursing (mostly silently) at neighbors shooting off illegal fireworks and terrifying my already sedated dog, I kept one eye on a live streaming webcam with a view of greater Denver. It was fun watching... Read More ›
• Wishing everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July (7/4/2018) -
• All of you, go to your rooms (7/3/2018) -    
• Never stop learning (6/30/2018) - There’s always something new to learn in Rocky Mountain National Park. Even the locals know that.    
• Just three more years, Justice Kennedy, please! (6/29/2018) - Please, please, please, Justice Kennedy! You’re only 81. Can’t you wait just three more years before retiring? RBG is 85 and hanging in there. If she can, so can you. We need you. American women need you to make sure... Read More ›
• It’s getting ugly out there (6/27/2018) - The title, “This is Just the Beginning,” appears above a photo of a burning limousine. The opening paragraph reads: “Do you think that being asked to leave a restaurant, or having your meal interrupted, or being called by the public... Read More ›
• Term limits, you betcha! (6/26/2018) - I’m posting a lot more cartoons these days because so many of them say exactly what I want to say, without all my blather. Term limits? I’ve been saying that for years. The only problem is, it needs to be... Read More ›
• The bear cam is back (6/22/2018) - They’re back. The Alaskan brown bears at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, Alaska. More accurately, the bear cam is live again. There’s a note that the bears appear mostly in July and August, but there was one there when I... Read More ›
• So you think you could outrun a lava flow (6/22/2018) - Photographer Ken Boyer captured this unbelievable scene as lava gushed from Kilauea’s Fissure 8 on June 15, 2018. If you were thinking you could easily outrun those creeping flows we’ve been seeing in the news, you’ve another think coming. And... Read More ›
• Free the children, lock up Sessions (6/20/2018) - I’ve never condoned illegal immigration. But trying to discourage it by separating children from their parents is unconscionable. Those children are guilty only of having parents. When I first heard about this practice, I was immediately reminded of Nazis breaking... Read More ›
• Father’s Day 2018 (6/17/2018) - Best wishes to all the dads out there!
• Teen stuns ‘America’s Got Talent’ judges (6/13/2018) - Do you remember back in 2009 when Susan Boyle blew the lid off “Britain’s Got Talent”? She sang “I Dreamed a Dream” and the judges’ jaws dropped. Well, last night on “America’s Got Talent,” a painfully awkward 13-year-old girl named Courtney... Read More ›
• ‘I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky’ (6/10/2018) - I came across this photo recently on Erik Stensland’s website. His gallery is in Estes Park, Colo., and he specializes in photographing Rocky Mountain National Park. There are many more equally spectacular photos on his website, Images of RMNP, and... Read More ›
• My thoughts exactly (6/8/2018) - Seriously, this is exactly what I first thought after hearing about the Supreme Court’s recent decision (the one allowing an evangelical Christian baker to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple). I took it as permission for... Read More ›
• A browser called Brave (6/7/2018) - We’ve all struggled with browsers, ad blockers, cookies, caches, etc. in an effort to protect our privacy on the internet. And some of us are more concerned than others. I, for example, boycott Facebook and Twitter except for my blog... Read More ›
• Pied Type, WordPress, and the GDPR (6/3/2018) - In recent months we’ve heard a lot about internet privacy and privacy violations. Most notable, perhaps, was the Facebook data “leak” and related Congressional hearings. Then late last month came Europe’s GDPR — General Data Protection Regulation. It protects the... Read More ›
• ‘Batboy’ Jake a big hit at the ballpark (6/2/2018) - Here’s a burst of sunshine for your weekend: Jake the Diamond Dog. No politics here, unless maybe you don’t like dogs. (I don’t trust people who don’t like dogs.) Come on now, everybody smile! I borrowed this from Ronni Bennett’s Time... Read More ›
• Schadenfreude and Roseanne Barr (5/31/2018) - Yep, too much schadenfreude. On my part, that is. And I feel a bit guilty about it. But only a little bit. I was appalled last fall by ABC’s decision to bring back the “Roseanne” show. I’ve never liked Roseanne... Read More ›
• Memorial Day 2018 (5/28/2018) - ~ REMEMBER ~ All gave some … Some gave all
• And the games continue (5/27/2018) - Friday the Memorial Day “games” began at the entrances to Rocky Mountain National Park. Cars lined up bumper to bumper waiting to get through the toll plazas. So today I looked somewhat farther south (160 miles or so) … and... Read More ›
• Denver men claim world’s tallest waffle stack (5/27/2018) - A group of Denver men calling themselves the Denver Collective Assembly have claimed the Guinness Book of Records title for world’s tallest waffle stack. Yesterday their 67-centimeter stack beat the previous record of 51 centimeters. Official certification from Guinness is... Read More ›
• Let the games begin (5/25/2018) - It’s a brilliant sunny day, with the high temperature in Denver to be in the 80s, and a three-day holiday weekend lies ahead. I’m delighted to be here at home with my air conditioning and not out trying to get... Read More ›
• There’s action on Trail Ridge Road (5/22/2018) - Trail Ridge Road, which reaches elevations above 12,000 feet as it crosses through Rocky Mountain National Park, traditionally opens on Memorial Day Weekend. But in the mountains Nature always has the last word, and although the road crews are hard... Read More ›
• Another school shooting, more thoughts and prayers (5/22/2018) -   If America’s leaders won’t act for the good of the country, it’s time to elect new leaders!  
• Estes Park webcam collection grows by four (5/21/2018) - Yesterday I added four new Estes Park, Colo., webcams to my collection. All four are live streaming, although you have to look closely at the tips of branches or the clouds to tell. (The “live” tag in the upper left... Read More ›
• The latest internet ‘dress’ is yanny vs laurel (5/16/2018) - A few years ago the internet blew up with What color is this dress? White and gold or blue and black? Now the question is What do you hear? “Yanny” or “laurel”? Apparently it depends on what frequencies you hear... Read More ›
• Hope springs … (5/14/2018) -   … however briefly
• Yes, of course Grandma is still gaming (5/11/2018) - Hard to believe it’s been a year since I bored you with my adventures as the Gaming Grandma. But I’ve been too busy gaming to bother writing about it for the two or three readers who might be interested. I... Read More ›
• Will issues verbal thrashing of Mike Pence (5/10/2018) - For a lesson in how to wield the English language, check out George Will’s column in the Washington Post. You needn’t agree that “Trump is no longer the worst person in government” to enjoy — or choke on — Will’s use... Read More ›
• ‘Be Best’? (5/9/2018) - I’m among those who don’t understand what Melania Trump means with her “Be Best” campaign. My first thought was that since English is her second language, maybe she just missed the mark and means “Be the Best” or “Be Your... Read More ›
• A tiny typographic tantrum (5/5/2018) - An item in the Washington Post yesterday caught my attention … and annoyed me on several counts. It’s a discussion of single spacing vs. double spacing at the end of a sentence. All the emphasis seems to be on readability,... Read More ›
• I learned a new word today (4/30/2018) - (Yes, it’s a real word. I looked it up. And not surprisingly, it’s been discussed more than once in the last year. But I’d managed to remain ignorant until I saw this cartoon this morning.)  
• Just another fish/shark/osprey story (4/27/2018) - Florida photographer Doc Jon thought he’d photographed an osprey in flight some 400 feet above the beach. He had. And having tried to pick birds from the sky with my own camera lens, I know how difficult that can be.... Read More ›
• Osprey catches koi in Colorado (4/24/2018) - (Updated April 25) A local newscast just showed an osprey nest in Boulder, Colo., and noted there is a webcam there. I didn’t realize there were ospreys in the area, much less a webcam watching their activities. So I looked... Read More ›
• Spring in Colorado (4/24/2018) - Yesterday it was sunny and warm. About 70°. I took the dog for a walk. This morning it is cloudy with a snow/rain mix. Temp is 35°. The yard man cancelled my first mowing. Yea, Spring.
• Hey there, it’s Earth Day (4/22/2018) - Earth Day is important, you know. Me and all my amphibian cousins will be among the first to disappear if you humans don’t clean up your act and protect our planet. So do your part, okay? … ribbit … Thanks for... Read More ›
• Sony announces winners from 2018 photo competition (4/21/2018) - Winners of the Sony World Photography Contest were announced last month and finalists this month. Several publications have assembled extensive galleries of the top photographs in a variety of categories. These two appealed to me immediately, but there are many... Read More ›
• Comey: Trump ‘morally unfit to be president’ (4/16/2018) - Last night, on live TV, George Stephanopoulos interviewed former FBI Director James Comey. And despite my personal boycott of most political news, I watched. Although my opinion of Comey has shifted several times, I generally like and trust both men... Read More ›
• Yoga with a friend (4/11/2018) - It’s a video. Click the picture.
• Respite (4/5/2018) - This is an untitled photograph from Erik Stensland’s Facebook page. Stensland is a professional photographer based in Estes Park, Colorado, and his photos of Rocky Mountain National Park are favorites of mine. In order not to contribute to a concentration... Read More ›
• Sinclair Broadcast Group responds to criticism (4/4/2018) - The Sinclair Broadcast Group responded to its critics (see “Sinclair Broadcast group shoots self in foot“) with this press release. Frankly, I think they missed the point. Or more likely, they chose to step gingerly around it. PR people are... Read More ›
• Sinclair Broadcast Group shoots self in foot (4/3/2018) - You might have heard this weekend that Sinclair Broadcast Group required all of its local news anchors to read a script about biased and fake news. That meant almost 200 tv stations across the country issued the same statement. I... Read More ›
• Monday morning chuckle (4/2/2018) -  
• Hmm … (3/27/2018) -
• March for Our Lives offers hope for the future (3/24/2018) -   From out of the darkness Our future will come If we leave the past behind We’ll fly beyond the sun From “Hope for the Future” by Paul McCartney   I’m so proud of these young people!     More... Read More ›
• Facebook lack of privacy is old, old news (3/21/2018) -   I hate to be an “I told you so,” so I won’t be. I’ll just reprint something I wrote back in 2011: ____________________ The Federal Trade Commission has finally taken Facebook to task. Now, because of previous violations of... Read More ›
• Webcam page gets new look (3/18/2018) - Just a note for those readers who visit my webcam page. I’ve redesigned it to make it, I hope, more user-friendly. It still needs some work, but that will have to come another day.
• Happy St. Patrick’s Day (3/17/2018) -