Farmers aren’t the only people who pray for rain. I love precipitation. I favor rain, but I can also find things to praise in hail, sleet and snow, in moderate amounts. Living […]
Retorts: Rain, rain, don’t go away!
90 % of knowledge is 50% quotations
I’m a quote kind of guy. I love a good quotation because they can often sum up the essence of a truth in just a few words or sentences, much more so […]
The seductive appeal of “victimhood”
“I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.” […]
No surplus hugs, and let’s shake on it
I have never been much of a tree-hugger, even though I consider myself a sort of environmentalist. The fact is, I’ve never been much of a hugger at all. One’s willingness to […]
Is bigger really better? Let’s think
“Bigger is better!” Well, that woke me up. I was sitting there in the Garden Grove City Council chambers enduring another Much-Longer-Than-They-Need-To-Be discussions and one councilman came out with that bit of […]
“Us” paints a scary picture of, well, Us.
By Jim Tortolano I’m not sure that the best way to judge “Us,” the new film by Jordan Peele, is as a Hollywood movie. I think it may well be more important […]
Don’t be a prisoner of “Captive State”
By Jim Tortolano So these giant porcupines invade Earth in flying rocks and – with no obvious effort – conquer the planet. A decade later resistances arises in a run-down section of […]
Take me out to the “gentler” game
There was a funny skit on “Saturday Night Live” in which a comedian portraying essayist George Will waxes poetic about the glories of baseball, but can’t even catch one tossed gently to […]
It’s official. Being a ref is a thankless job
“Steeeeeee-rike!” “What? Are you blind? That ball was a foot over her head!” “Which game are you watching?” “You’ve got to be kidding!” The grass is sweetly new-mown and the thonk and […]
Retorts: The negative power of negativity
“More people, on the whole, are humbugged by believing nothing, than by believing too much.” – P.T. Barnum If you want to know why our political world seems to be stuck in […]
