A period 1890’s candlelight dinner, except, in the Mojave Dessert in 1990. Read Mojave Classics in My Notes.
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A period 1890’s candlelight dinner, except, in the Mojave Dessert in 1990. Read Mojave Classics in My Notes.
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Corn on the cob in less than 5 minutes, and it slides right out of the husk ready-to-serve! I was initially skeptical, but this trick really works. See our post and link to a short 22-second video in My Notes.
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The software industry works best with a large number of buyers. Customer feedback and bug reports are a critical source of product improvement. But what happens when no customers call or write? From my forthcoming autobiography, in Writing Notes.
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I’ve said before, cooking shows never shout at you. What about a cooking show that scares the bejeesus out of you? I caught part of PBS’s “New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad.” Review, in My Notes.
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There are some compelling decades-old reasons why I should have warmed to opera by now. But they don’t seem to be working. Post in My Notes.
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Summitlake reviews the $39.99 Black and Decker Toaster Oven. Five Stars in our book. In My Notes. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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“I went outside to look around. Light rain, then, ka-BOOM! Okay, no swim this evening.” Read my short post in My Notes.
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I’ve noticed a popular fallacy that seems to be of a distinct category. I call it “Fallacy of Disenfranchisement” because it attempts to disqualify a speaker from even expressing an opinion. It circumvents arguments ad hominem by entirely eliminating the ‘hominem.’ This fallacy might also be called a “reverse appeal to authority.” Read about this and related debate errors in My Notes.
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“If you remember the TV commercial about cowboys driving huge herds of cats, ponder for a moment how one herds a cloud of butterflies, and you’ll have our answer.” — Read the dialog in My Notes.
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Today I was obliged to respond to a disturbing Facebook thread. I put it in my Facebook status, in preference to escalating heated emotional posts, to bring the topic to a wider audience. Read my remarks in My Notes.
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Someone recently sent me a short essay on the rise of the Third Reich, the History of World War II, and the Nazi mind-set that started it. Read my rejection letter in My Notes.
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I’ve been buying toaster waffles for years. They’re quick and convenient. But by the time we butter and pour syrup on them, they aren’t very hot, and they don’t have a lot of flavor beyond the syrup. Read how to turn a lackluster food experience into a real treat, in My Notes.
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It seemed obvious to me that overzealous righteousness has everything to do with it: the god-given notion that we have the right to define what offends us personally as an offense to the very universe, and that we somehow then acquire the divine right to mete out retribution of our own choosing without benefit of judge, jury, trial or verdict. Read this brief post in My Notes.
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A mercifully brief history of my evolving discovery of the human voice in classical music, with links to high-quality sound and or video clips from YouTube. Read the article and hear the sound clips in My Notes.
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“And they’re all these damn Nancy Pelosi Liberals, you know, every single last one of them, who will try to twist the conversation around into the Environment when all we’re discussing is how to make a $20 profit on a truckload of old-growth redwood. They’ll take a simple innocent declarative sentence like this one and embroider and embellish it until it sounds like Al Gore’s Sermon on the Mount! …” A modern parable, in My Notes.
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I already knew it was high time for me to replace those wiper blades. Desert heat and road dust are murderous on the soft rubber parts, as you know. When it rained, which has not been often, my wiper blades would squeal and chatter … Now, there are some problems nowadays I didn’t have a long time ago. My close-up eyesight isn’t what it used to be, so I’ve learned I need strong light for detail work. Second, they’ve changed everything! Read the story in My Notes.
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I’d just bought a brand-new set of four Michelin Energy 205/60/16 tires for my ’99 Camry Solara on October 4. This isn’t a review of the tires, just a testimonial to a safe outcome in a hairy collision-avoidance situation. Photos. Read my Post in My Notes.
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I’ve lately been corresponding with a long-lost cousin, and we’ve been doing the catch-up thing on families, family trees and personal notes. She’s a happily married mathematician and educator in the northwest. As many Summitlake.com readers know, I’m a sixty-something retired gay man who lost a life partner to cancer in 2005, and a Vietnam vet. So, my cousin wrote me today commenting, among other things, on the recent end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. She also remarked “I am very discouraged about politics.”
I’m not much for sharing private correspondence. It still occurred to me I had written some encouraging words for my cousin which might serve as a heartening reminder to all of us: while the pace of change often seems maddeningly slow, it’s happening all around us faster than we can usually appreciate. Read the excerpt of my letter in My Notes.
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New post from Alex, who says: “Seen the grotesque new FDA cigarette warning labels? This strikes me as way over the top. I’m predicting an enormous backlash. So I’ve come up with some equally bad taste suggestions for alcohol warnings too!” See post for article and images. In My Notes.
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Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was therefore commonly referred to as “Silent Cal.” A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, “Mr. Coolidge, I’ve made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you.” His famous reply: “You lose.” It was also Parker who, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, “How can they tell?” — Wikipedia — read article in My Notes
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Education as entertainment? I think so – I think Khan Academy might be the next Wikipedia. I discovered Sal Khan and his free online curriculum on the Charlie Rose Show. I actually audited some really enjoyable free course segments online. Read this article in My Notes.
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Million home pages served, Phoenix weather, BIO, sexism in The New Yorker? … plus the greatest theater review I ever heard … read the ramble in My Notes.
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Is the Golden Age of Rail really over for good? If the air passenger industry doesn’t reinvent itself soon, might rail again be the next really big thing? Read this article in My Notes.
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Update on my BIO autobiography writing project, and notes on music streaming as a permanent replacement for the table radio. Read this post in My Notes.
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Mary McCaslin wrote this wonderful song in 1977. Over thirty years later, it gets better and truer with age. I could not find the lyrics anywhere, so transcribed them by hand… read the lyrics in My Notes.
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