The Rocky Road to (Fictional) Romance

May 23, 2013

Mystery Book Club tonight. At the last meeting I announced that I had finally figured out what bogs down so many series, both book and TV: Relationships! Writers don’t feel like you’re getting your money’s worth, even if the point of the book is to solve a mystery, unless people are constantly trying to find THE ONE. Or, if they’ve found him/her, the road to romance must be rocky.

Well, here’s a news flash: I don’t care.

It stands to reason that during the course of a book or series people are going to meet people they want to date; that’s fine. If they want to get married or whatnot, that’s fine, too. But you don’t have to focus the entire book (or worse, series) on it. Of the book I reviewed I said, “Somewhere between all these relationships there’s a story. But it was too confusing to find it, so I gave up.”

There’s a reason “Law & Order” lasted so long, and I suspect it was because they focused on cases and not relationships. And I firmly believe that "House" tanked because they focused on his weird relationships instead of on the cases.

OK, got that off my chest.

Take Back Control of the Keyboard

OK, folks, I can’t take it anymore.

When you are abbreviating a number or anything else and use the apostrophe, DON’T just hit the apostrophe once and leave it like that, to wit: Class of ‘13. When you do that, you look like an idiot. (I am referring here to newspapers, web writers, and the printer who produced the graduation announcement we got in the mail.)

Hit the apostrophe key TWICE, thusly: ‘’13; then DELETE the upside down one. That will leave you with the correct form: Class of ’13.

Please????????

Let’s Not Jump to Conclusions

May 17, 2013

The Owyhee Mountain Range is south and west of Boise. For the first 3 years I lived here I didn’t even know it was there. Then I’d catch occasional glimpses of something that could be clouds, but had a consistent shape. And then sometimes I would actually be able to see the mountains.

This year they have been visible every day for several months. But I’m sure it has nothing to do with the good folks of Canyon County, after fighting for years, finally complying with EPA orders for Emissions Testing.

I Guess the Jury Didn’t Buy It

May 17, 2013

An 82-year old man was convicted of child molestation for an incident that happened four years ago. He said that the incident wasn’t his fault, as the 4-year old had groped him.

Have fun in prison, Mac.

I'm 0 for 3

May 15, 2013

The only new shows I cared about have all been cancelled: Vegas, Monday Mornings and Golden Boy.

On the plus side, I won't be wasting a lot of time watching TV next season.

Mom's Wisdom

May 12, 2013

On Mother’s Day, I’m passing along the piece of advice from Mom that I remember best:

Never date a man who is rude to the waiter; because once he’s no longer trying to impress you

The way he treats people he thinks are his inferiors is the way he’ll eventually treat you.

You nailed it, Mom.