Dog Ear – Page 48 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

November 25, 2021

oally Unaccepable (DOG EAR)

hort piece on hanksiving day. The “” key sopped working on my keyboard. I press i and nohing happens. I really pisses me off. So I lay in bed hinking about he keyboard and wha I migh wrie, and I figured why not about his supid failing key? Sared the piece and hen remembered he can of jet spray in the close. Sure! hat migh work! So I sprayed he key from all sides. …. How is it working? ttttt. Seems whatever was stuck under there, whatever crumb or dust or gunk, it’s blown out. No “T” problems anymore. At […]

December 2, 2021

The Inviolability of Books (DOG EAR)

ooks represent a number of things, particularly the containment and storage of thought, knowledge and wisdom. That is why book burnings (by Nazis) and book bannings (by school boards) seems like such an evil thing to those who wish to see humanity reflect on its mistakes, realizations and histories. And which is why throwing out books made me a bit queasy recently. You see, I had to intercede in a friend’s medical crisis and breaking into his house revealed that he was a hoarder. Marie Kondo would have run screaming from the piles. Me, I found it a bit disturbing. […]

December 10, 2021

Bebop (DOG EAR)

ust one of these nice stories. Had all sorts of crises over the last few weeks. Outside of the overshadowing disaster of a month ago, I caught something from a friend (how do you catch things, what with doing a good job with a mask?). Had to go to the ER and make sure it wasn’t Covid. Upper respiratory infection. Then, to top things off, a crown popped off a day ago. So I was worried about going in with my hacking – what happens if I accidentally cough and blow the not-set crown across the room? But things settled […]

December 16, 2021

A sad, lonely book (DOG EAR)

live in fear of finding one of my books in a used book shop. What does that mean? Did the owner not care enough? Is my book like the puppy in a shelter? Well, here’s one that’s worse. Found a neat book at the used bookstore. As I read it, I noticed that it was in great condition, but had GEORGIA HIGHLANDS COLLEGE LIBRARY stamped on the side. So I could always look this school up but I’m going to go with the idea that it’s some sort of commuter college, a tiny place in the backwoods somewhere. So this […]

December 23, 2021

Reading and the modern world (Quoted DOG EAR)

wo kinds of conservatives are drawn to the business major at Liberty Tech. First are the genuinely naive, true patriots, often small-towners, admitted despite lower SATs, but nurtured on an undying faith in the capitalist system. And then there are their sharper, sharker brethren, more common to some suburbs, eighteen-year-olds who are already so practical, cynical, and business-minded – willing and wanting to extract as many dollars from the world with as little effort as possible – that the idea of learning to read, write, and think, perhaps only for reading, writing, and thinking’s sake, seems like a complete waste […]

December 30, 2021

Best of 2021 (DOG EAR)

n what is as much a tradition as weekly blog postings, I close out my year with my Best Of review of books that delighted me. And I’ll say that it was a rough year. With everything going on, I really didn’t find much of anything that lit my fire. No Oves. No Airbornes. Nothing that really lit me up as in years past. But anyway, here are the best of my reads for the plague year of 2021. RedShirts – A wonderful tale by a new master of scifi. It’s rather like Galaxy Quest but […]

January 13, 2022

The Cat in the Stack (DOG EAR)

veryone who knows me knows of my book Indigo, where I spent time showing how crows see the world (and how, like us, they can recognize patters, make intelligent choices, and understand a lot more than we give them credit for). This factors into my story, a tale about a book, a bookmark, and a cat. For Christmas, my wife gave me (amongst other things) a copy of the latest (and last) book of The Expanse. Now, as it has been a while since the last book, I decided to reread it before pushing into the series finale. And since […]

January 20, 2022

The world before social media (DOG EAR)

was sitting around the model train club the other day, paging through old issues of Model Railroader. I mean old, old issues, like from the late forties and early fifties. So funny and quaint to look back from a time of computer chips and 3D printing at a world of ozone-emitting electronics and block control. But what really struck me was the letters from readers. Each of them, at the end, included an address. I’m wondering how often someone might say something a person agreed or disagreed with and might have prompted a return letter or two from the readers. […]

January 27, 2022

Sense of Place (DOG EAR)

ne important element of storytelling is a sense of place. If you feel that you know a location that the story is taking place in, if it feels real and connected to the rest of the world, the story “grounds” its foundation. And while this can work in literature, it’s very important in more visual media. We just stated watching Goliath, a tale about a lawyer who drinks too much and has fallen on hard times. Taking place in LA, the lawyer lives on the second story of a sea-side motel. Right next door is a bar. Ranging around outside […]

February 3, 2022

Scythe (DOG EAR)

ince I’m retired but ordered off the beloved bike because of medical reasons, I’ve taken to walking. I can venture out two miles from the house (giving me a comfortable range of operations). Given that most shops are a mile or less away, it’s pretty handy as well as a utilitarian way to combine exercises and errands. So I needed a scythe. The weeds at the club are getting long and I need a way to mow them down (the grass, of course, is inert in winter). Walked over to the hardware store and bought the tool, then hooked it […]