This post is number 44 in a series.

And it is also a tribute -- an unforeseen one, as it happens -- to Blue Girl. She posted her 50th yesterday and, magnanimous to the last, her very next act was to encourage those of us she inspired to copy her. She also posted a scan before I did.

This post is number 43 in a series.

My latest camera download contained about 170 images from at least four trips. And I’m resolved not to get behindhand in organizing them. So I sat down to rank, keyword, catalogue and upload one of the trips, and before I know it I’ve spent an extra hour wande...

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This post is number 42 in a series.

Last night’s storm could have woken the dead. We risked going out because it had been a while since the previous excursion, and walked the streets with lightning fizzing all around and thunder above our heads. Dry lightning, I was hoping. But no, and when the...

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“Like it or not, addicts say, they have fewer and fewer choices in buying drugs.”

That’s a throwaway line in a recent Vanity Fair feature, one that has had a fair amount of play in the blogosphere.

I lied. That’s not actually the true quote. The truth is:

“Like it or not, farmers say,...

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I've been reading Grant McCracken’s blog for a while now, and enjoying his posts without quite feeling the need to point anyone else at them. But this is a beaut, and not just because I feel it strongly myself.

Paul Allen, the Microsoft cofounder, has a yacht that is 416 feet long. It cost some...

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