You say you want a revolution

Can it really be that 44 percent of Republicans, in a recent poll, think that an armed rebellion will soon be needed in this country? That’s the craziest thing I have heard in a long time. We have elections in this country, and the majority rules. If many Republicans can’t accept that, they don’t have

Predictions for 2012

Here’s something I started writing on December 29, 2011. I saved it as a draft, and never gave it much thought until I discovered it this morning. Other than overstating Obama’s electoral vote totals, I think I was pretty prescient. Here’s my not-quite-a-year-ago predictions: OK, so I’m not that much of a prognosticator, but there

The Romney Files, Part II

To follow up on my earlier post with a number of pieces about the Republican nominee for President, here are some more of the thoughts that have previously appeared in this space. I worked one of my favorite writing topics, the music of Bruce Springsteen, into a post that appeared in early August. To the

The Romney Files, Part I

As the election draws near, there seems to be a frenzy on both sides about wooing undecided voters. So to that end, here are some of my thoughts about Willard M. Romney, presented in chronological order as they appeared in this space: During the Republican primary season, I wrote this in response to the suggestion

Have you ever been arrested?

The only reason I’m familiar with this song is that it was on a sampler CD that I won from the Loop in Chicago when I was in college. It was 1988 or 1989, and I didn’t even own a CD player at the time. It was the first CD I ever owned, and it

The letters tell me something

One of my favorite websites is the anagram finder at wordsmith.org. It’s fun to take someone’s name, enter it into the finder, and see what comes up. Sometimes, the letters form words that indicate something about the person in general. For instance, an anagram for Clint Eastwood is “Old west action” and, judging from the

Come on and take a free ride

There’s a vending machine in the office where I work, and on most days it gets no money from me. But today was different. It was the middle of the afternoon, and instead of getting up to get myself a cup of coffee–I love coffee and will probably drink it every day until I die–I

Safe from British bullets

Mitt Romney’s gone across the pond, and so far it’s not gone well for him. If the idea was to make him seem presidential on the global stage, it’s turned into just the opposite. If you don’t believe me, consider that #RomneyShambles is the top trending item on Twitter as I write this. It won’t

I’ve already learned something

I’m not terribly political in this space, generally, but I’m also not afraid to wade into the murky swamp of politics on occasion. I used an aching back to question something that Mitt Romney once said about people being envious of him. I compared Romney to Draco Malfoy at one point as well. So there’s

Understanding Cranbrook through the lens of Harry Potter

By now, everyone knows the story of Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s tales of the young wizard and his years at Hogwarts became runaway successes, the likes of which we might not see ever again. A generation of kids have grown up knowing about muggles and horcruxes and he-who-must-not-be-named. Writing these tales certainly changed Ms. Rowling’s

Some dance to forget

I’ve done some things in my life that I can’t remember. All of us have. Like a sponge that can only hold so much water, our brains–and memory is included in this–have to purge themselves on a regular basis. But there are plenty of things that I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget running into the