I interrupt this series of posts about murals to (a) apologize and (b) vent a little. The apology is necessary because I have no idea how my posts appear on your electronic device but I’m pretty sure my last couple of posts were a bit haphazard, graphically speaking. […]
In a week when the person most qualified for the US presidency withdrew from the race, it seems appropriate to draw your attention to a woman who should have much greater historical significance. San Jose State University has a marvelous library, named for Dr. Martin Luther King, and […]
Happy New Year! It amazes me to realize that I have been maintaining this blog for a decade. I would not have imagined that to be possible when I began it. The years 2010-2019 have been full of new experiences, accidents, and opportunities. I have moved from Red […]
When I first started this blog in 2010, WordPress provided me with a perfect platform. I didn’t have the skills to create a website, and WordPress made it easy for me. I was able to upload text or to create text directly on the site and soon thereafter […]
When I started this blog I had the idea that I wanted to write a book but needed to start with smaller writing projects. Snowbird of Paradise has been a good place for me to gain some writing practice, and I find that I like writing blog-size pieces […]
I am SO happy! I just got an email from a friend I haven’t seen or heard from since the 1970s. We were students together at Bretton Hall College back in the day when we wore bell-bottomed jeans. Isn’t that marvelous? I have been doing the dance of […]
OK, I was wrong. But did you have to be so nasty about it? A couple of weeks ago, I made the mistake of engaging in a comments-section discussion in the Guardian online. The topic was the world’s overpopulation and I threw in my, under-informed, two cents worth. […]
Follow my blog with Bloglovin If you like reading and/or writing blogs, you may be interested in Bloglovin’. It’s a site designed just for people like us. I am signing on there today and will have my blog posts available there in future. My blog’s home is still […]
You’ve heard of fake news, but have you heard of a fake personal email? Well, I got one this week. It has become more and more difficult for local businesses to attract our attention because they cannot afford ads on television, few people listen to radio, and flyers […]
I have been nominated for four blogging awards in the past, and I am pleased and honoured to have been considered. The process, however, requires a kind of chain-letter nomination of other bloggers, and this makes me a little uncomfortable. In the spirit of recognizing great blogs, though, I […]
Try explaining why using “had had” or “that that” can be grammatically correct. For examples: “The woman had had a bad day,” and “I can see that that bothers you.” Go ahead. I’ll wait. This week I tried to explain this to my English as a Foreign Language […]
PowerPoint must be the most popularly misused software on the planet. Ever since it first appeared, we have used it badly and for all the wrong reasons. It has so much potential, but we have really made a muck of it, most of the time. Printouts of Slides […]
Someone on the Nextdoor message feed yesterday was complaining about a homeless encampment near his house. He wrote, sarcastically, “Wow, what a wonderful site!” What he probably intended was to write “sight” not “site.” The message could have been read to mean that he liked the encampment, or […]
How it works This how seasonal affective disorder works. It keeps you in the house, makes you regret every bad decision you ever made, bashes you over the head with your personal shortcomings, and then teases you with all the things you could have done but didn’t. […]
When we say we want to be our own boss, we usually mean that we don’t want someone else telling us what to do. We don’t really want all the risk and responsibility of running a business single-handedly. We just want the freedom to work and create […]
I just got yelled at, and I’m not used to being yelled at. A very angry man berated me over the phone for giving his company a mixed review online and a 5/10 star rating. He said it was all lies, he was going to take me to […]
I am thinking about turning some of the Snowbird of Paradise blog posts into a book and would very much like to have your feedback. One recommendation I have read about is to select a concept and choose only those blog posts that are associated with that concept. […]
During the night, at around midnight, a helicopter flew round and round above my neighborhood. I am assuming it was a police helicopter, but it wasn’t chasing anyone because it kept coming back. So, what was it doing? Were they looking for someone? [Interval] For the second day in […]
Someone recently asked me what my blog was about. I said it was “kind of like a journal” and instantly regretted it. She didn’t exactly roll her eyes, but her expression clearly said “Oh good lord. How boring.” Obviously, I need to come up with a new way […]
I used to teach writing, and I pushed that grammar boulder uphill every day. Many students would ask why the rules were what they were, and I didn’t always have an answer. Sometimes the answer was ‘just because,’ which is not satisfying in the least. Occasionally I came […]
I am a snowbird who travels south for the winter. When I get there I have a bird of paradise plant on my patio.
