Treading a Careful Path in Post-Castro Cuba

“There is a discrete left-opportunist trend that seeks to throw all developments in Cuba post-1959 into the dustbin and forget about it. This does as little for us as the right-opportunist line; both fail to grasp the full reality of revisionist corrosion and capitalist restoration in Cuba, although one cloaks itself in stultified theory.”

A Final “Hangin’ Out the Warsh”

«This is Bill’s final column» out of countless ones he wrote over 71 years for the Falls City Journal. With this column, he said farewell; the Journal has been sold and moved to a much smaller space in downtown Falls City which it had occupied until 1950. It’s all extremely symbolic of the state of…

More Grief

This is kind of like how I feel about my (possibly four) upcoming surgeries: I don’t want to do this, but I have to, and I hate it. Received a kind e-mail yesterday telling me of the death of Bill Schock of Falls City, NE, on Thursday evening, six weeks short of his 100th birthday….

Dean Allen, RIP (Jan. 2018)

Because so much has been messed up and unstuck during the first half of this god-awful year, I just discovered the other day that Dean Allen, the creator of Textpattern, which powers this site, and of TextDrive, which used to host this site until Joyent destroyed it, and of «Textism» and Textile and Cardigan Industries…

Shooting Up the Waffle House, Naked

In all this pouring (and pouring and pouring) rain, how difficult is it to find a naked man running around after he assaulted a Nashville Waffle House at 3 a.m. with an AR-15 and killed four people? And this after he was arrested last July by the Secret Service for being in a restricted area…

Closing Tomorrow

Closing on the new house at 11 a.m. tomorrow! VERY happy. His Majesty is preparing final addresses for the Cats of Saddlebrooke/Hermitage, then he and the Royal Court will be off at the end of the week to invade and conquer the new land of Jonesboro/Nashville. Wish him luck; there is a very giant, very…

Entitle This

Rep. Larson Slams GOP for Labeling Medicare and Social Security 'Entitlements' Congressman John Larson (D-Conn.) scolded Republicans in a fiery speech on Thursday, criticizing their use of the word "entitlements." "Newsflash! It's the insurance that the American people have paid for." Posted by IJR Blue on Friday, April 13, 2018

Deer Tracks

With the recent freeze/heat weather cycle, the Saddlebrooke Deer Herd are a little pressed for food, it appears. The… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Snow at Hermitage Station

Hard to tell in this pic, but it’s snowing to beat the band in Music City. Thoughts and prayers to grocery store workers… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, January 29, 2018

Snow in Dixie

Snowing to beat the band in Music City and they’re as panicked as if General George Thomas and his Yankees was a-comin’ agin. Winter is always amusing in Dixie. Snow is purty though! Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018

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.

They Don’t Like the New ‘America First’ As Much As They Did the Lindbergh Version

So let’s see if I’ve got this. Germany, a country in which there are still many women alive who were raped by invading Russian Red Army soldiers and in which the human products of those rapes are still living, now trust … Russia more than the United States.

Dressing Up

Newschannel Five must have seen my previous post about dressing Steve Layman like an Easter egg the other night…. Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, November 17, 2017

American Carnage: 17-Nov-17

The Diddler’s Club What we learned this week: • Al Franken is the latest member of the “People Who Diddled People Who Didn’t Want to be Diddled” Club. This Diddlers Club, of which we’re all so very proud, officially now consists of the nation’s President; at least two former presidents; two or three sitting United…

Dressing Down

As an old print journalist, I have little regard for tee-wee “news” – it ain’t news, it ain’t journalism; it’s local… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, November 15, 2017

New Swirly Lights

Bought new LED swirly lights for the front of the house. They have a remote that can change the colors to… Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, October 23, 2016

Back to Churl Status

Home again! Glad to be here. It was a wonderful weekend. His Majesty #IAmTheRoux immediately assigned me back to General… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, August 8, 2016

Almost Home

I knew I was close to home when I encountered a truck carrying Brad Paisley's "Life Amplified" Tour headed for Music City. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, August 8, 2016

Tennessee River Bridge

Bridge over the Tennessee River, at Paducah/Grand Rivers/Land Between the Lakes. Not far from where the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers meet the Ohio. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, August 8, 2016

Tennessee River Rolling On

The Tennessee River flowing out of Kentucky Lake and dam rolling on to its meeting place with the Ohio. That water will be in New Orleans inside of 90 days. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, August 8, 2016

Four Rivers HD

Not a great pic, but in Paducah, KY, there's a Harley Davidson dealership shaped like a riverboat. Who knew? fourrivershd.com Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, August 8, 2016

Thinking Big

Lying on the bed looking out. Thinking Nashville needs one of them things. Maybe a 700-foot gee-tar? Or an obelisk made of records and people's broken dreams? Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, August 7, 2016

Casino Queen

I almost stayed at Casino Queen across the river since there were good reviews. Until I found out a room was more… Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, August 7, 2016

La Plume

The purplish plume over in Illinois is a giant water fountain near the Casino Queen. Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, August 7, 2016