I Dodged a Bullet or: How Amy Coney Barrett Could Have Been My Bitch

Once upon time, in the early ’70s, my mother got involved with a religious group called John the Baptist Charismatic Renewal Community (JBCRC). It was a touchy-feely kind of church — well, not that touchy-feely; my mother was certainly no hippy. I didn’t really care for the extra church services — as I remember, they…

Continue reading

A Tale of Two Movements — LGBTQ Families Day 2020

If you live in the United States, chances are, you’re well acquainted with the I Have A Dream speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. It was a pivotal moment in the fight for African-American civil rights. And it had nothing to…

Continue reading

A Six Month Covidcation

It seems to me that the correct response to this pandemic is to have everyone simply stay home for six months. Of course, not everyone can stay home — people would die if they did, from starvation, from ordinary, everyday diseases and injuries left untreated, from failures of infrastructure — but if the vast majority…

Continue reading

I’m In The Valley Without Hilda

Isaac Asimov wrote a short story called I’m in Marsport without Hilda (found in the excellent collection Asimov’s Mysteries) in which the protagonist, Galactic Service agent Max, finds himself in the Martian town without his wife. He decides to take advantage of this by spending his time in the company of Flora, a woman of…

Continue reading

And everything in its place

Like most folks, I’ve got a lot of bits and bobs lying about. While working on the HPi, I collected a whole mess of screws and standoffs of different sizes and types; another project I’ve got in the works has me loaded up with assorted small toggle switches and electronic components. I’ve also got small…

Continue reading

You Can Leave Your (Hard) Hat On

Corner view of the full system

Randy Newman wrote the song You Can Leave Your Hat On about a man’s experience with a stripper. The singer provides instructions for the stripper on removing her clothing, but has her leave her hat in place. I love Randy Newman and adore his music but he was always too innocent and virtuous for this…

Continue reading

HPi — A Custom Case For Raspberry Pi

Although my oldest son has his very own 3D printer, he hasn’t had time to print any of the items I’ve asked for, including any of the Raspberry Pi cases I liked. (In his defense, he’s been busy with school, robotics, his teaching job, and generally being a driven, successful high schooler.) So I decided…

Continue reading