Me, posturing with my comment, trying to seem smart on a smart person’s blog: The detritus from abandoned blogs and terminated online relationships makes my last 12 years hard to revisit. I felt like some of those bloggers were among my best friends until one day they disappeared for good. I often think about looking … Continue reading Loss
Blogging
The Final Word
The night before my carpal tunnel surgery in 2023, I blogged: I’m certain they’re operating on the wrong thing—it’s a combination of wanting it fixed and wanting to say I told you so when it isn’t. The doctor who sent me to neurology dismissed my theories, clearly annoyed that I challenged his diagnosis. “Right, I picked up carpal … Continue reading The Final Word
Shouting into an Echo Chamber
When class ended, they fist bumped and stretched their legs and grabbed paper towels to wipe down their bikes. A couple of shouts of “good class,” and “thanks Jeff” and people filed out of the room. As they left, I gave a quick plug for my next class, “I’ll see y’all on Saturday at eight,” … Continue reading Shouting into an Echo Chamber
The Sweet Scent of Decay
It started as a running blog. I named it Running, Writing, Other Stuff. Sure, sometimes I wrote about other stuff, but the emphasis was running. Five of my first eight posts focused exclusively on running. It morphed quickly, though. There’s only so much you can write about running, or maybe I should say there’s only … Continue reading The Sweet Scent of Decay
Ben – A Guest Post
David Don, also known as DD or DeeDee on WordPress, saw my years-old call for guest posts on my readers' impressions on Tourette Syndrome: Write me a story. I think in most cases I would have said “sorry, too late” But DD is truly one of my favorite bloggers. His haiku posts are interesting, cleverly … Continue reading Ben – A Guest Post
Vanishing Act
Did'ja miss me? I'm not sure if I missed you. Two weeks without blogging has been relaxing. As I get farther from my last post, as fewer people visit my site each day, I begin to lose the compulsion to check my stats every hour. But I feel I owe an update. I made an … Continue reading Vanishing Act
Baby Shoes, Never Worn
The first and only time I wrote a six-word story, I did so as a joke. A bad joke, no one got it. I needed to explain the punchline. Six Word Story – Part II Last week, Bill, the library employee who runs my writers’ group, assigned homework. “Jeff and I have been discussing Negative … Continue reading Baby Shoes, Never Worn
Negative Space
First I searched Google, and later Bing. ‘Crow graphic with negative space.’ I’m planning a tattoo. I have a thing for crows. A year ago, I went on a spree—three stories about crows in two months—the one I killed, the stuffed animal from college, the one that said 'hello.' I Killed a Crow | Crows … Continue reading Negative Space
Kubrick, Chandoha, Harold, and a Purple Crayon
When my kids were young, up early at five o’clock, wired and awake, and me trying to catch up with bolshy big cups of stove-top espresso, we read. We read The Cat in the Hat, and Thomas the Train, and Pajama Time, and Harold and the Purple Crayon, and a hundred other books over and … Continue reading Kubrick, Chandoha, Harold, and a Purple Crayon
Food Fight
In the Washington Post today, I saw an article stating that beginning December 1, Google would start deleting dormant accounts. I have one of those. My first blog was published on Google's blogging platform Blogspot. There are a few posts on that blog I don't want to lose, so over the next week, I'm going … Continue reading Food Fight
Cease and Desist
[The Other Stuff] Contact Name:Albert Kinney Email:albert.d.kinney@usdoj.gov Comment: Notice: Cease and Desist (DOJ-02262025-003) Mr. Cann: It has come to our attention at the U.S. Department of Justice that your website, The Other Stuff, contains forty-two articles critical of President Donald J. Trump dating back to 2015. As you are already aware, as evidenced by your … Continue reading Cease and Desist
Open Rate
In a library meeting yesterday with a consultant: “So this newsletter you send out, how many people receive the email?” “Twenty thousand, but only seven thousand open it.” “Wow, that’s a great open rate.” It’s the first time I heard these figures. I’m finance, not marketing. At work, someone else worries about website stats. But … Continue reading Open Rate
A Losing Combination
Under the knife… again, tomorrow, the culmination of a year-long wait. “Let’s see if it improves,” they said, but it never did. “It’s just a mild case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome,” the neurologist dismissed me by turning his back, making this comment already halfway out the door. An affliction of real estate underwriters and insurance … Continue reading A Losing Combination
Interview with No One
I don’t write fiction. Well, okay, I’ve been writing a long time. I have written fiction, but not much. In college, I wrote a story about Cory Seventeen and Cynthia Bluejay, an android and a sorority girl. It wasn't good. I wrote the story because I liked the names I made up for the characters, … Continue reading Interview with No One
Shavasana
My yoga class ends with Shavasana (shah-VAHS-anna), a Sanskrit word meaning corpse. The pose, the second to last of each class, is simple. I lie flat on my back, legs slightly apart, arms at my sides, palms up, as if I’m about to receive a gift from heaven. As if I’m ready to grab what … Continue reading Shavasana
Writing to Write
That time God spoke from the clouds. In many of the "Rules for Writing" lists on the web, know your audience is number one. I know my audience. I'm writing this for myself. ~ ~ ~ “Hey, where ya been?” That’s what you’re thinking right now, isn't it? At least in my mind you are. … Continue reading Writing to Write
Dog Days
I’m not the one who should be writing about weather. Daily, I read about unprecedented heat in Arizona and millennial flooding in Vermont. Let the Arizona and Vermont bloggers write the weather posts, I thought. It’s pleasant in Gettysburg—high eighties, low nineties. Yes, that’s a little hot, but it’s July, it’s supposed to be hot. … Continue reading Dog Days
Now what?
WordPress modified their reader again. And like always, they did it without explanation. Now a little graph with numbers appears opposite the likes and comments when I browse the blogs I follow. I can’t figure out what it means. I tried to Google it. No scrap that, I tried to Bing it. I’ve stopped using … Continue reading Now what?
Vomit Draft
I started writing about the weather. Really just the temperature. I thought I could craft a whole essay on what temperature is considered most perfect. The one Goldilocks would love. Seventy degrees, not too hot, not too cold. But then I started thinking about how Americans are just about the only people who use the … Continue reading Vomit Draft
Did it count?
Killed it! Nailed it! Crushed it! Do any violence you want to it, but people gotta notice. If no one sees, did it really happen? Yes, this is very much like that tumbling tree in the woods… There’s a saying in my house when someone finishes a run or a bike ride. “Did it count?” … Continue reading Did it count?
The Other Stuff 