Category Archives: USA

No Monopoly On Fun

Posted on September 15, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The old fashioned board game has been making a comeback in North America, especially with Gen Z. Many attribute the renewed interest in this decidedly nondigital pastime to the Covid Pandemic. Along with the iconic games such as Monopoly and … Continue reading →

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It’s all one thing

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

HYMN TO TIME by Ursula K. Le Guin Time says “Let there be” every moment and instantly there is space and the radiance of each bright galaxy. And eyes beholding radiance. And the gnats’ flickering dance. And the seas’ expanse. … Continue reading →

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Great writer, artist not so much

Posted on September 8, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In 1952, when the quintessential Beat writer Jack Kerouac began marketing his second novel On the Road to publishing houses, he designed his own book cover. He sent it to a potential publisher A.A. Wyn, with a little note typed … Continue reading →

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Stand Your Ground

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

A few years back, I was taking a short hike around a glacial lake below the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska and nearly walked up on a bear. Fortunately after seeing the fresh bear tracks, I reversed my course and found … Continue reading →

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Poems on Various Subjects

Posted on September 1, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

On September 1, 1773, Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in London, England. Wheatley’s collection was the first volume of poetry by an African-American poet to be published. Regarded as a prodigy by her contemporaries, Wheatley was approximately … Continue reading →

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Who doesn’t love a good Dorling Cartogram

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

World Population Flags is a Dorling cartogram in which country flags are sized by population. The cartogram is used to visualize where people live around the world and the relative size of each country’s population. Take for a spin. A … Continue reading →

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consternation at the departure gate

Posted on August 27, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

SONG OF THE DISGRACED PERSON Jack Underwood As a fire axe waits in its little shop window As a tongue returns raw to the lozenge It’s not your fault you’re like this, but you are As consternation at the departure … Continue reading →

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Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day

Posted on August 26, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

, In 1974, Saturday Review magazine asked some of the world’s leading thinkers (Isaac Asimov, Jacques Cousteau, Andrei Sakharov, etc.) what the world of 2024 would look like. Here’s what they got right (internet) and wrong (factories on the Moon) … Continue reading →

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It was a dark and stormy night

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck.” 2024 Grand Prize Winner Founded in 1982 at San Jose State University in California, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest challenges entrants … Continue reading →

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Tension for Tears

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

As I have previously mentioned, the novels and short stories of Ray Bradbury played an important role in my early love of reading. I recently ran across this marvelous brief video of Bradbury from fifty years ago discussing the importance … Continue reading →

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