When I read news articles and listen to the radio, the one constant is the state of confusion people have about what motivates the bad decisions we see being made daily. Our government is utterly dysfunctional, companies do really crazy things that alienate their customers, individuals mess up their lives to a level of parody,…
My article on German aerial flamethrowers
December 19, 2023
I’ve published an article on German aerial flamethrowers. It’s in Windsock Worldwide, Volume 29, Number 6, November/December 2013. This is the best World War I aviation journal around, so I’m proud that my article was accepted. Years ago I built model airplanes for Windsock, but I had to stop when my eyesight started going. During…
A funny thing happened…
December 18, 2023
When I say a funny thing happened, I don’t mean funny like this. I mean, really unusual. A few days ago, I got an e-mail asking about my Great-uncle Colonel Curtis Yarnell Kimball, O.B.E., U.S. Army (ret.) Here he is being awarded a medal by Field Marshal Bernhard Montgomery in Munich, April of 1945. At…
Actions have consequences
December 17, 2023
It’s my new obsession: actions have consequences. Always be aware that what you do today may haunt you for the rest of your life. The proudly communist, rabidly anti-gun, pathologically Republican-hating, completely dead loser who attacked Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, on Friday 13, 2013, was a huge fan of the The Anarchist Cookbook,…
Can humor always be found?
December 17, 2023
Yesterday Robert Schulslaper interviewed me at length for Fanfare. The question of my sense of humor came up a few times. I have a rather dark sense of humor. It’s not completely dark; for example I find this ad extremely funny. The two actresses are absolute geniuses. This Monty Python sketch can still make me…
A study in contrasts
December 16, 2023
Howard Stern gets paid $95 million a year. He has a net worth of $500 million. Here’s how he makes his money. Elderly Man Wins Sex with Hookers, Chokes to Death Hours Before Prize The 86-year-old winner of Howard Stern’s “I Want to Get My Grandpa Laid” contest was sadly unable to claim his prize…
On the run with a Canadian
December 15, 2023
When I first arrived in Tokyo in September of 1985, I moved into a guest house. I got to know several of the long-term residents, one being an older Canadian woman named “Rachel.” Tall, slender, and elegant, she was…unnerving. She seemed wracked with pain, even though she had a good sense of humor and laughed…
Smarm versus snark
December 15, 2023
I followed a series of links in pursuit of the claim that more and more publications and writers have chosen to stop producing negative book reviews. Though I don’t read my reviews, it’s only because they aren’t written for me. I know what’s in the book. If the review is negative, what am I supposed…