Category: Steve

Beginning of the End Day—Year 80

"Instead of "Thank you for your service," try, "We're sorry you had to expend your blood, sweat, tears and toil to clean up our monumental failings." Every time you meet one of the dwindling numbers of WWII veterans (and those of all the other magnificent little American wars we've fallen into), keep your mouth shut and your brain focused on peace. These "Greatest Generation" folks answered the bell and won the fight. We might not be as blessed next time."

What a Tangled Tweet We Weave When First We Practice to Get Outraged

A "good job" according to whom? May I ask when exactly was the last time you were in an elementary school and sat through an entire school day with first graders? I ask because my mother makes this same argument frequently, yet has not been in an actual elementary school building since 1976. Her grandchildren were taught at home so she, therefore, has no experience either visiting a school or evaluating a public school education since 1976.

Movie Night: Desk Set

"Not only is it hilarious, it has fabulous midcentury (ugh, that word) interiors, jokes only librarian/book/research nerds understand, an awesome supporting cast including EMERAC and Kate gets to get blotto and talk about the "Mexican Avenue Bus" (the Lexington Avenue Bus, that is)."

Movie Night: Hot Millions

"There's a lot more than just smiles to recommend this one–ts droll English humor, its glimpse at fashions and designs and trends of 1968, the fantastic acting of everyone, including the performance of Bob Newhart, whose movie outings are often forgotten, the sarcastic wit and the satire–it's a long list and will need a second viewing to get it all."

Pocket Guide to France, or, Onward to Parisian Mademoiselles

"You are a member of the best dressed, best fed, best equipped liberating Army now on earth. You are going in among the people of a former Ally of your country. They are still your kind of people who happen to speak democracy in a different language."

Beginning of the End Day

"Instead of "Thank you for your service," try, "We're sorry you had to expend your blood, sweat, tears and toil to clean up our monumental failings." Every time you meet one of the dwindling numbers of WWII veterans (and those of all the other magnificent little American wars we've fallen into), keep your mouth shut and your brain focused on peace. These "Greatest Generation" folks answered the bell and won the fight. We might not be as blessed next time."

The Wages of Sin, America, is …

"It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with National Socialist Philosophy. For if there were such an entity, one would have to try by means of analysis and discussion either to prove its validity or to combat it. ..."

11:00 | 11-November-1918

100 years ago today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns along the 440-mile line stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea fell silent. The war started 1 August 1914 just as German Chancellor Otto von Bismark once famously predicted around 1884, by "some damned fool thing in the Balkans;" in this case, the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a city of agony in the 20th century). But on 11 November 1918, it was finally "all quiet on the Western Front."

The Conscience Stirs

I pretty much wish I had remained disconnected from FB while also being innovative enough to stay connected to the real people in my life without Facebook's corrupting middle man kleptocracy. I sense that there is another housecleaning coming; my involvement will need to be further curtailed. I'm thinking of what we can do next ... there are far better possibilities, surely, than this unholy mess of greed and venality.

S.T.E.V.E.

Finally, I have an identity. I am a "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement." Strong. Thermal Emission. Velocity… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, March 19,...

Happy 52nd!

“It burns! It burns!” Happy birthday to the better half! (Those candles were throwing off sparks which you can barely… Posted by Steve Pollock...

Die weiße Rose

"Seventy-five years ago today, a group of young German idealists, students who had dared to speak out against the Nazis,… Posted by Steve Pollock...

Face Mapped

In need of some … lighter moments around here, we checked out the new Google Arts and Culture Face Map app to see what…...

Shuttling Between Failures

The story is sordid and long, but the details were made clear by Matt Viser's excellent Globe piece. To wit: Lorenzo sold the Donald the Eastern Shuttle for an overvalued $365 million (if DT had created a brand-new shuttle from the ground up with brand-new planes, not old worn-out 727s, estimates were that he could have done it for $300 million.) Of course, the money was all borrowed. It was 1989; Eastern (and Continental) were already almost dead from Lorenzo's sledgehammer and the economy was tanking. Pan Am 103 was bombed, the first Gulf War was about to begin. It was incredibly bad judgement to overpay a bunch of other peoples' money for something that was guaranteed to tank.

Trees, Part Deaux

Trees, Part Deaux (cont'd) … but it fell onto the neighbors' yard, barely missing their porch and stuff. Its carcass… Posted by Steve Pollock...

Trees, Part Une

Trees, Part Une: "I think that I shall never see "A nasty devil like a tree. "They always fall over on me, "Leaving a…...

Ole Yeller

His Imperial Highness, #IAmTheRoux, and His Imperial Clown Prince, #GooseIsLoose, wish it known that They do not exert… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, June...

AARP … NO!

Oh AARP, no you did NOT just address me as "AARP Grandparent"!! My siblings, my cousins are the grandparents (and proud… Posted by Steve...

Me Homer

Today's Facebook Quiz:Which MRI image is Homer Simpson and which is me? Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, February 25, 2016