Man, I've been busy lately. Still am. Just a quick catch-all catch-up post full of dubious detritus:
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This here blog is just recovering from an explosion of visitors brought by a single Tweet from online cartoonist Scott Kurtz, who enjoyed my post on the Catbayashi Maru. I met the popular and successful Mr. Kurtz for the first time a week ago (might write about the occasion someday, but probably won't). What made it fun was that Scott won the Eisner Award for best webcomic the year after I did, which we shamelessly lorded over everyone else. I liked him, his wife Angie, and his Dad a lot. Anyway, one whisper from Scott was enough to peg my visitor count for two or three days. I hope he uses his power for good.
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I just came up with the best way to get a charity solicitor off the phone, and I'm amazed I didn't think of it years ago. Today when the very determined lady asked if she could count on my $25 donation, I plaintively replied, "But I just gave you a lot more than that last month! Didn't you get it?" She thanked me and hung up so fast she was almost rude.
Karen and I like giving to charities, particularly local ones for which our relatively puny contribution might make a difference. What I don't like is when the cost of the follow-up letters and phone calls begging for more exceeds the value of what we donated in the first place. That'll get you crossed off the list pretty quick.
Karen and I like giving to charities, particularly local ones for which our relatively puny contribution might make a difference. What I don't like is when the cost of the follow-up letters and phone calls begging for more exceeds the value of what we donated in the first place. That'll get you crossed off the list pretty quick.
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Every so often, when Karen and I have a free afternoon, we pick some small town only slightly less randomly than throwing a dart at a map and say, "let's go there." We did it again last weekend, visiting a hamlet just a half hour away we hadn't been to in years, and had a swell time. Anybody else do that? I recommend it.
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I've got a couple of speaking engagements coming up I'll write about when I have some time. Both related to Mom's Cancer, and I can't express how gratifying it is that my family's story endures like that. It's very, very nice. Much appreciated.
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Anyone else remember Herb Caen? Dot dot dot.
Back to work, slacker.
Back to work, slacker.
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5 comments:
Hi Brian. I recently picked up Mom's Cancer and was blown away. It's really brilliant. Now I'll have to look for "World of Tomorrow".
Barry, thanks a lot! I really appreciate it. Fair warning, World of Tomorrow is very different. But I took a look at your Blogger profile and suspect with your interests it may be right up your alley.
People underestimate Twitter. People who don't USE Twitter underestimate Twitter. I've built a small feed consisting of a local CBC reporter and a couple of other local bloggers - I know about every breaking news story in Fredericton at least 30 minutes before it ever hits local media.
Hey, we do that thing too about picking a town at random and visiting it! I highly recommend picking up a large-scale, back-roads atlas of your region for storage in the map pocket. This is the one we use, by Map Art. They're invaluable.
Diane and I did that "picking a town at random" thing in Ireland in '06. That's what I called it, anyway.
She called it, "Sherwood's got us lost again."
Oh, and yes, of course, I remember Herb Caen. Not only that, but I am proud to say that I was once mentioned in Herb Caen's column, that's how old I am.
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