• Weekend Music Rob G has recommended this band to me several times, but I hadn't followed up on the rec till a week or so ago, when the state PBS network featured them on a weekly live music series, from a gig in Birmingham (Alabama). I was immediately taken with them–not only with the music,…

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  • We were talking about these a couple of months ago. This one is from a neurosurgeon, who had previously believed that consciousness is an entirely material phenomenon. "But that belief, that theory, now lies broken at our feet. What happened to me destroyed it." I have not read the Newsweek article to which the short notice above,…

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  • …not to believe what advertisements tell you: I admit that I'm a little sorry the one on the left here isn't accurate as to the health effects: More, and crazier, similar stuff here. Some of it's creepy and dangerous. 

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  • What to do? What to do? I said that to my dog Andy a little while ago, by way of remarking on his confusion and indecision. He is a Bichon Frisé–and no, as I know I've said here before, I never wanted a cute little dog–he came to us more or less by accident. (I…

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  • As we were discussing a week or so ago, the Sunday September 30 edition of the Mobile Press-Register was the last daily edition of the paper, presumably forever. In it, Frances Coleman, who had been the editorial page editor for many years, and is one of the people who will not have a job in the…

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  • Weekend Music Last week, trying to think of who The Clientele's singer reminded me of, I thought of Al Stewart. And then I thought of this song, which, though it's an instrumental, somehow has some of the '60s feel of The Clientele's work. Moreover, it's actually from the '60s. I'm not sure exactly when or…

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  • The Debate

    If you watched it…or far that matter if you didn't watch it…feel free to post your reaction.  I thought Romney did quite well. I think this is the first time I've watched a Republican candidate in one of these circus acts who didn't make me cringe for him. I don't know whether this improved his…

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  • My Night At Maud’s

    This is a late '60s French movie by one of the New Wave directors (Eric Rohmer), generally regarded as a classic, so I fully expected to like it. But my reaction was lukewarm at best. I didn't know what to expect from the description: two friends, one Catholic and the other Marxist, spend an evening…

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  • Where Are The Bumper Stickers?  One day last week I saw a Romney/Ryan bumper sticker, and I realized it was the first one I'd seen. Since then I've seen, I think, one more, two at most. And then I realized that I haven't been seeing many Obama stickers, either. Most of the Obama stickers I've…

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  • …to buy one of these? Go to the shopping page at space.com if you have to have one.

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