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Monthly Archives: May 2022

1880 edition of Ivanhoe

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Click here for high-resolution version. The way books are constructed has hardly changed in centuries. It’s daunting, though, to contemplate just how much human labor was required to publish a book in 1880. The Linotype was invented in 1884 (in the United States), but I’m sure it was years before they were widely in use. […]

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Strawberry preserves

Monday, May 9, 2022

… Or maybe it’s more like strawberry syrup. Though I reduced the sugar a bit, which is probably what made the preserves too thin, I did cook the preserves until they reached 220 degrees. I greatly prefer preserves that are slightly runny, even if this batch is a bit too runny. To my taste, it’s […]

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Banned in Texas

Sunday, May 8, 2022

Better Nate Than Ever, Disney+ If you haven’t watched a Disney feel-good flick for a while, then here are two reasons to watch Better Nate Than Ever. One, it’s very funny and very sweet. It’s even got Lisa Kudrow. Two, the book the film is based on is a good example of the kind of […]

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Not a seascape

Saturday, May 7, 2022

The morning after the storm. Click here for high-resolution version. If I were a poet, I’d try to write a poem that captures how forests and the sea are so much alike. Both are dark and deep and full of creatures. Both can be quiet and peaceful, but both are violent and dangerous in a […]

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Who’s afraid of the Ninth Amendment?

Thursday, May 5, 2022

May 3, 2022. Source: Wikimedia Commons. There is an unspoken rule among legal eagles that ordinary people (like me) should not try to interpret the Constitution. The reason is that constitutional law (legal eagles use the term “jurisprudence”) is very complicated and embodies a long history of Supreme Court case law about which we non-experts […]

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Agricultural entrepreneurs: Yes!

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Here at my latitude, strawberry season has started. As of last year, acquiring strawberries got a lot easier for me. A new strawberry farm started up last year only a 10-minute drive from here. They pick the berries in the morning, then sell them for $10 a gallon under the porch of an old barn […]

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A stupid new book about Apple

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Inside an Apple store First of all, I have not read this book, and I’m not going to read it. In fact, it won’t be released until two days from now. But this morning in the New York Times, the book’s author has an utterly stupid little collection of misleading anecdotes under the headline “How […]

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