a blog about this, that, and a few other things
THIS IS THE DEFAULT CATEGORY on this blog and was previously the General Observations category. Here you’ll find articles about my wife and my cat, anecdotes and jokes—basically anything that doesn’t fit into any of the other, more specified categories.
Most of the pieces here are reasonably gentle—those essays or articles that contain any vitriol will be found in the Neal’s Rants (Really Political) category.
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BEFORE DON JUAN DE MARCO, there was Pepé Le Pew, the world’s greatest lover. Or so the skunk thunk. Monsieur Le Pew was introduced to moviegoers in 1945, where he was a hit! Warner Brothers signed him to a long-term contract that made him a regular member of the casts of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. [Read more] “the flirtations of pepe le pew and his nameless girlfriend”
BACK IN PRE-REAGAN AMERICA, back in the ’60s when the wealthy and the corporations still paid something resembling a reasonable tax rate, many (white) high schools in these here United States had a Guidance Counselor. This person’s job was to assist juniors and seniors in recognizing and understanding their interests and skills and guide them towards courses that might help them towards realizing the goal of a rewarding career. [Read more] “changing the tower light bulb (it’s too late, baby)”
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES for discovering new dinosaurs! Allosaurus! Brontosaurus! Stegosaurus! Triceratops! Bloody reptiles with wings and birds with teeth What a heady time it was to be a scientist! Yet it was arguably the worst of times for establishing respect for scientists and the reasonably new fields of paleontology and comparative anatomy. [Read more] “bone wars, rock-star scientists, and runaway egos”
NEW YEAR’S DAY HEADLINE for the Independent Journal email newsletter was paranoia-inducing: “A Man Was Just Captured In New York Planning ISIS Attack on New Year’s Eve.” My immediate reaction was panicky: “Holy Schidt! ISIS in the Big Apple!! We’re under attack!!! It’s the end of the world as we know it!!!!” [Read more] “we came to the pyramids all embedded in ice”
THE SLAUGHTER OF OUR WOLVES continues almost unabated, although one would never know that we are exterminating yet another species in a rather horrific manner from the near total lack of attention given to the topic by the mainstream-corporate media. Before proceeding, I suggest reading “The Slaughter Of The Wolves” on Neal Umphred Dot Com. [Read more] “where wolf? nowhere wolf! (the slaughter of our wolves)”
I ASSUME THAT MOST OF US dare to presume when we should be merely assuming! Just the other day one of my friends drifted into discussing the difference between ‘assume’ and ‘presume’ and before either of us could look it up and find out the difference we were both called to other duties and there the conversation rested until now because I wanna know once and for all when is an assumption not a presumption! [Read more] “when is an assumption not a presumption?”
TUESDAY WAS THE DARKEST DAY that I had seen since moving to the Pacific Northwest almost thirty years ago. At 3:00 in the afternoon it was so dark that the automatic streetlights and roadlamps were flickering on and off, their sensors apparently confused by the lack of light at that time of day. [Read more] “truer lies were né’er spoken (at least not by me)”
FIRST THERE IS A MOUNTAIN then there is no mountain then there is. I had made this walk a hundred times before today but today was extraordinary, but then every day is extraordinary.
So, I walked as I always do and always did.
So, I walked past the many telephone poles on 112th Avenue NE. [Read more] ““shazam” with a small “s” and no exclamation mark”
LIKE MANY BOYS of my generation, I went through a dinosaur phase in the early 1960s when I was 10-12 years old. I was fascinated by these huge beasts and my parents indulged my interest by buying me most of the better books on the subject. And there were also those few movies that had been made up till then that had something ‘dinosaurish’ about them. [Read more] “ornithomimus in dinosaur provincial park sounds trippy”
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a blog about this, that, and a few other things
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
