Running After My Hat header image 4

Entries from April 2009

It’s Gnawing at Me

April 29th, 2009 · 14 Comments

[Click Play button to begin. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left -- row of little vertical bars.]
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Help me out with something here: What, exactly — even approximately — is the deal with mice? meaning, specifically, mice as humans? (I do recognize there are many deals with [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Advertising/Packaging · Movies · Music · Nature & Pets · Ruminations · Video/Computer Gaming

The Teachable Moment

April 29th, 2009 · 2 Comments

I don’t usually just post a link to someplace else, without using it as a springboard for my own ramblings. (Indeed, one of those ramblings is forthcoming.)
But this slice of life would be ruined by elaboration: “Choose your own adventure at Lee NAILS” (Deb on the Rocks, via Maggie). Highly recommended reading for parents of [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Advertising/Packaging · Everyday Life · Humor · The Online World

“Just Where Have You Been, Young Man?!?”

April 27th, 2009 · 8 Comments

So, yes, I disappeared for[...counting...] four days there. (Friday’s whiskey river-based meditation brought to you through the miracle of WordPress’s scheduled-posts feature.) Long story short (so unlike me, I know), for now: I spent the time with The Brother, up in NJ. We were joined Saturday by The Sisters.
That’s the three of them in the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Everyday Life · Family · In the Blood · Language · Looking Backward · Running After My Hat

These Things Must Be Done Delicately

April 24th, 2009 · 5 Comments

From the originating page: “Osmanthus [JES: a/k/a cinnamon flower] is a unique Asian flower, with a smooth and rich scent of green tea, apricot and suede leather. It is used to scent green tea as well as special confections and Chinese baked goods. The peak of the osmanthus flowers season is… end of September until [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Humor · Poetry · Ruminations · Television · whiskey river Fridays

No Wonder Johnny Grew Up So… Troubled

April 22nd, 2009 · 5 Comments

You may have imagined that until the Internet, parents didn’t need to worry that technology might endanger their children. If so, you were wrong.
Photo below the fold. Found it at the wonderful Found in Mom’s Basement site: “Vintage advertising — found in my mother’s basement, flea markets and various corners of the Internet — dusted [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Advertising/Packaging · Everyday Life · Looking Backward

Notes from the Clearing

April 20th, 2009 · 11 Comments

[Above "homage to Miller's Crossing" also represents a tip of the hat to Froog.]
So it’s been a year now: 365 days, 309 published posts [Editor's note: 310, or have you forgotten that you wrote this one yesterday?], 1,295 comments (counting my own replies to comments, and occasional replies to those replies).
When I started Running After [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Looking Backward · Movies · Running After My Hat · The Missus · The Online World

Brief Fable for Our Time, Maybe, from the WIP

April 18th, 2009 · 3 Comments

Emrys ap Rhys, an 18th-century Welsh brewmaster-to-be, is bidding farewell to an old man he has met on his return from London to Wales. He and Charlie met during a steady rainfall, in the shelter of a lean-to attached to the back of an English family’s barn; they’ve shared what food they have, and Charlie [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Everyday Life · In the News · Ruminations · Seems to Fit

“There Is No Next-Time-Round”

April 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment

From whiskey river:
Shifting brilliancies. Then winter light
In a doorway, and on the stone doorstep
A beggar shivering in silhouette.
So the particular judgement might be set:
Bare wallstead and a cold hearth rained into –
Bright puddle where the soul-free cloud-life roams.
And after the commanded journey, what?
Nothing magnificent, nothing unknown.
A gazing out from far away, alone.
And it is not [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Music · Poetry · Ruminations

Another Reason to Love NYC

April 15th, 2009 · 6 Comments

Tweenbots.
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
Given their [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Everyday Life · Science & Medicine · Tech · The Online World

Programmed Dyspepsia

April 15th, 2009 · No Comments

[This is the second of three brief(ish) posts on the experience of being sick, sorta-kinda-like, for four (sorta) days. (Here's part 1.)]
So I was sleeping quite a bit. Going online or otherwise sitting at the computer, almost not at all. Beyond that, pretty much, I was on the living-room floor, with The Pooch. Watching daytime [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Everyday Life · Science & Medicine · Television