A savage journey to the heart of the American dream

I don’t know which fact is more shocking to me: that Hunter S. Thompson, my counter-culture, anti-establishment hero, has killed himself; that he died the same day that former squeaky-clean teen star Sandra Dee passed away due to complications from kidney disease; or that he was older than she was when they died. I do …

One lump or two? Or three?

Friday was a three-coffeeshop day. I started at Cummings Candy and Coffee, not working but writing, trying to restore to memory what I’ve done so far in the writing of my novel. Cummings has terrific booths with classic wood seats and marble table-tops, and a warm small town vibe, which makes it ideal for writing …

Things you learn in school can be useful after all

A piece of good news from the tsunami coverage: British ‘angel’ saved hundreds from tsunami with classroom knowledge. Tilly, who has been renamed the “angel of the beach” by the top-selling tabloid The Sun, was holidaying with her family on the Thai island of Phuket when she suddenly grasped what was taking place and alerted …

As close as this site comes to knitting news

Unlike many others, I’m not skilled at creating things with yarn. But if you are, you might like to try out this nifty crocheted item: a crochet model of chaos. That is, they’ve made a thing that uses “25,511 crochet stitches to represent the Lorenz equations.” The idea for the “Lorenz manifold” model came about …