Though you should build a bark of dead men's bones,And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast,Stitch shrouds together for a sail, with groansTo fill it out, blood-stained and aghast;Although your rudder be a dragon's tailLong sever'd, yet still hard with a...
 I'm trying something different today.Today's post can be found on my substack. Check it out. 
  I don't know why this book came to mind today. Maybe I've still got the Five Card Stud movie on my mind. I know the theme song comes into my head a couple times per day. Whatever the reason, I opened Justice Resu...
Souls of Poets dead and gone, What Elysium have ye known, Happy field or mossy cavern, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?--From "Lines on the Mermaid Tavern" - KeatsElysium, paradise, heaven, shangri-la - Well, I'm ins...
 I had a keen thought earlier to day. In fact it was so sharp that it cut its way completely out of my memory. In the struggle to recapture the fugitive notion, I believe it had something to do with music and how it-- That's where the void t...
  I don't think I've talked about this movie before, other than to mention it in passing, It's a western-mystery classic that I never get tired of. I watched it this week while my wife was out of state.First things first: The Blaste...
The wild winds weep And the night is a-cold;Come hither, Sleep, And my griefs infold:But lo! the morning peeps Over the eastern steeps,And the rustling birds of dawnThe earth do scorn.--From "Mad Song" by William Blak...
  I suppose that's what writers tell their characters. I don't make a habit of offing my creations--at least not the ones who have become interesting and integral to the story. However, we occasionally fall upon times that try the w...
 The refit of Xanadu continues without help from Rush, Olivia, ELO, or Coleridge. A box of disappointment arrived today. I ordered it last week. I should've known better than to order through P. Andora Co. How did I come to request this deli...
The good ship Xanadu, as I'm currently calling it, complete with stately pleasure dome and caves of ice but no sign of Olivia Newton John, possesses no dearth of dings demanding attention. Yesterday repairs to the vessel consumed most of the day. I d...
The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I killDeceit, that loves the night and fears the day;All men who do or even imagine illFly me, and from the glory of my rayGood minds and open actions take new might,Until diminished by the reign of Night.--From...
 Chained to a rock at last. Fortunately, I don't see any eagles descending--at least not until the lender demands the monthly pound of flesh. We moved up (i.e., escaped) from the rental apartment, where the neighbors allow their dogs do thei...
O Nature! I do not aspireTo be the highest in thy choir, -To be a meteor in thy sky,Or comet that may range on high;Only a zephyr that may blowAmong the reeds by the river low;Give me thy most privy placeWhere to run my airy race.-"Nature" by H.D. Th...
Wellington confirmed that the French cavalry was the strongest on the European continent during the Napoleonic era.The heavy cavalry mounted frontal charges during battle to break enemy infantry or route their cavalry.The medium cavalry performed cha...
I've got Accidental Pirates on my mind because I dropped in on Les Freres Corses this week. They're not bookworms by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think they've ever even read a chapter book from beginning to end. Accidental Pirate...