What is a four-letter word for a “baseball sluggers stat”? According to the New York Times crossword of Monday, February 21, the answer is “RBIS.” This is the answer that I recorded on my puzzle, because it fit neatly with the surrounding clues, but it is not, in fact, correct and it irked me a…
Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there. Books Earlier this week, I wrote about the reasons I sometimes reread books. It was on my mind because I have been rereading Tom…
A while back I wrote about my favorite audiobook narrators. Today, I want to talk about narrators that don’t work as well for me. Let me be clear from the start that while sometimes an audiobook narrator’s performance is lacking, often a narration that turns me off has less to do with the narrator and…
We recently paid off our car, and so naturally, trouble began. It was intermittent at first. I’d go to start the car in the morning, all of the systems would come on, but the engine wouldn’t start. Eventually, I’d get the car started, either by jumping it, or trying again and again to get it…
This season1 Major League Baseball will institute a universal designated hitter rule. For readers who are not familiar with baseball, until 1973 pitchers had to come to bat at their turn in the lineup. In 1973, in the American League, a designated hitter was instituted. Pitchers would no longer come to bat. Instead, a player…
I was reading the new Ken Follett novel, Never recently and while it was interesting, it was moving too slowly for me. When a book isn’t working for me, I don’t hesitate, I set it aside. I set the Follett novel aside and began reading a book on the history of Ireland. We are planning…
Welcome to my blog series, “Practically Paperless with Obsidian.” For an overview of this series, please see Episode 0: Series Overview. Why bother archiving notes? During the years I used Evernote, I accumulated more than 12,000 notes, most of them still sitting in my Evernote notesbooks to this day. My goal then was to see if…
There is a statstically impossible stoplight about three miles west of my house. The stoplight is an anamoly, a discontinuity in the spacetime continuum. In the 13 years that I have lived in the area, driving west toward the light, I have never approached it when it was green. It is always red when I…
I am frequently reminded just how kind and understanding my readers are when they write, politely, to point out typos and other infelicities in my posts. There is never any sense of annoyance with these typos. Indeed, the feeling I get from these readers is the same feel I recall getting from teachers who wanted…
Here is what I read this week. Some of the articles/posts may require a subscription to read them. I also share my recommended reads on Pocket for anyone who wants to follow along there. Books Gave up Never by Ken Follett. These days, when I read fiction, I am looking to be entertained. I was in the mood…