Founding Kiss lead guitarist Ace Frehley died last night. He was 74. This is much more personal to me than most celebrity deaths. Ace has been an important part of my life soundtrack for just short of 50 years. I got Destroyer for my fifth birthday, and it was all over. It was the greatest … Read more
My esteem for Cracker Barrel is modest. I liked it a bit more when there were fewer good breakfast anytime options. It’s fairly easy to paste Cracker Barrel now in this department. For decades, however, I have found Cracker Barrel valuable for the occasional road trip stop. It’s predictable, to the point that you walk … Read more
In what must have been the spring of 1986, so just before we moved to the Huntsville area, the Oxford (AL) High School concert band played a Billy Joel medley as part of its spring show. Included was “Leave a Tender Moment Alone,” from Joel’s LP An Innocent Man. I just listened to it for … Read more
My relationship with Apple is long, dating to just a couple of years after it was founded (and only about seven after I was founded). Said relationship has also known great ups and downs. To be sure, Apple and I were marvelous pals in my childhood and young adulthood. The sense of wonder I felt … Read more
When I was in grammar school, one of my classmates lived a little out of town on a lot of land. There was a creek, and trails, and a lot of cool, lush grass that practically insisted you lie down in it and look at the sky. It was a good field trip destination for … Read more
You could be forgiven for not knowing that the swastika has been a positive symbol of divinity and prosperity for far longer than it has represented the Third Reich (and now Nazism in general). But German nationalist movements co-opted it over 100 years ago, and then the Nazis’ use of it cemented it. If it … Read more
My good friend Beth and I went to a couple of concerts last year—a group with her husband and my son Aaron to Extreme w/s/g Living Colour at Mars Music Hall in the spring, and then just the two of us to P!nk in Birmingham right before Thanksgiving. So on the way down we started … Read more
Del Taco was much bigger than Taco Bell when I was growing up in Anniston and Oxford. Our favorite babysitter Danette took Jenny and me there a lot. Plus, Oxford High School let out at 3 and band practice started at 3:30, so lots of band kids jaywalked across Highway 78 to Del Taco in … Read more
Just at some mental misfire or another? I think Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs) are the bees’ knees. I have them on all of my computers, of course, but I have several more deployed in convenience applications. If you run a lot of UPSs, then you know their batteries typically require replacement after four or five … Read more
I don’t have any resolutions for the new year, other than try hard to remember not to worry about things I can’t control. I wish you the best in your endeavors, in 2025 and always. I’ll be back with more actual content the week of January 6. God be with you.