Blog Entries from Earp

  1. Amen, Sir.

    Coda from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury About two years ago, a letter arrived from a solemn young Vassar lady telling me how much she enjoyed reading my experiment in space mythology, The Martian Chronicles. But, she added, wouldn't it be a good idea, this late in time, to rewrite the book inserting more women's characters and roles? A few years before that I got a certain amount of mail concerning the same Martian book complaining that the blacks in the book were Uncle Toms and why...
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  2. 1916 Style Guide

    A style guide from the 1916 Kansas City Star, said to have influenced Hemingway's style. Some anachronisms, but mostly good stuff.
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  3. TikTok, Dude!

    The dark side (one of them, anyway) of social media: A car theft challenge going viral on TikTok and other social media apps has led to a 767% increase in Hyundai and Kia vehicle thefts in the Chicago area since the beginning of July compared to last year, according to authorities. In 2019 a little over 200 KIAs and 200 Hyundais were stolen statewide (Colorado). The following year, that number jumped to roughly 400 each, then doubled again in 2021, to more than 1,000. Already in 2022, we...
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  4. USA

    Too long for the Favorite Quotes thread, but classic PJ O'Rourke: “I was having dinner…in London…when eventually he got, as the Europeans always do, to the part about “Your country’s never been invaded.” And so I said, “Let me tell you who those bad guys are. They’re us. WE BE BAD. We’re the baddest-assed sons of bitches that ever jogged in Reeboks. We’re three-quarters grizzly bear and two-thirds car wreck and descended from a stock market crash on our mother’s side. You take your Germany,...
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  5. Obit

    I can only dream of living a life (and raising a son) that would earn me this kind of obituary. [URL]https://www.fayobserver.com/obituaries/m0028451[/URL]
  6. Hot Spot

    From a eulogy for Prevention Magazine editor-in-chief Mark Bricklin by Greg Gutfeld: "Bricklin taught you to write tight and fast, and trim everything that didn't matter. He had a simple test -- he called it 'the hot spot.' Every paragraph -- yes -- every single paragraph -- had to include one memorable sentence that made the paragraph worth existing. If that hot spot didn't exist, you had to kill that paragraph, without remorse. Try it some time." Sounds like good advice regardless of...
  7. Free Speech

    I've never even visited Reddit, but their CEO, Steve Huffman, has made me a fan for life with his reply to calls for Reddit to ban 'disinformation and conspiracy theories' from the platform: Dissent is a part of Reddit and the foundation of democracy. Reddit is a place for open and authentic discussion and debate. This includes conversations that question or disagree with popular consensus. This includes conversations that criticize those that disagree with the majority opinion. This...
  8. Tell It

    A good part of the drama necessary for uncovering the story resides in the conflict between the storyteller and his/her audience. Audience plays the part of antagonist to the writer’s role as protagonist. The writer drives the action, which is forever complicated, frustrated and undermined by the audience’s needs and sensibilities. Audience wants you to prove it. Audience has a chip on its shoulder, and doesn’t give a damn. Audience has been there and done that in the guise of your mother,...
  9. Politically Correct Bigotry

    I consider redneck to be an ethnic slur, the equivalent of the N-word, and don't use it.
  10. A Very Particular Set of Skills

    I thought this was an interesting analysis, especially the comparisons with Churchill and King. [URL]https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a31775/taken-speech/[/URL]
  11. And Now, the News

    U.S. newspaper circulation fell in 2018 to its lowest level since 1940, the first year with available data. Total daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) was an estimated 28.6 million for weekday and 30.8 million for Sunday in 2018. Those numbers were down 8% and 9%, respectively, from the previous year. Both figures are now below their lowest recorded levels, though weekday circulation first passed this threshold in 2013. Newspaper revenues declined dramatically between...
  12. STEM

    When I was a tyke, I grew popcorn for a science fair project. These days, sixth-graders are working with recombinant DNA.
  13. From The Babylon Bee

    How do you spot a Libertarian? You can usually smell their dank kush before you can see them. But if your sense of smell is still all wack from COVID, look for guys carting around books from the 1700s and shouting, "AM I BEING DETAINED?!" at everyone from police officers to Arby's cashiers.
  14. Headline of the Day from YouTube

    Wolverine Walks By Biker, Carrying Goat Head
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