Recent Comments

1. about 9 hours ago on Luann

   Since this tradition of watching a ball of lights descend in Times Square NYC dates back to 1907, clearly more than one host to announce the new year has been required. I just read a report that the NY sanitation department is standing by to remove an expected one ton of confetti after the crowds disperse.

2. 2 days ago on Luann

   Sorry, I can’t guess where you live. In my neighborhood it’s rockets and missiles and frequent siren alerts that we’d like to eliminate, along with explosive drones of various kinds. We’d also like the return of kidnapped hostages alive.

3. 4 days ago on Luann

   Who told you that you could get away with that (!)? If you think Christmas shopping is tough, for all the presents on a single day, try it for eight nights without resorting to at least a few minimalistic ones. The only thing that sounds to me more difficult would be the tradition of twelve days including lords a-leaping and maids a-milking. Now, I have to make allowance for comparison of Christmas stocking stuffers with some of the interim days of Hanukah; where one may use the bags of chocolate gelt as an initial stake in the dreidel game of win and lose. (But one must be prepared with extra gelt or other candy as consolation prizes for the kiddles who are unlucky.)

4. 7 days ago on Luann

   Nice poem. Are the “8 flying bucks” a reference to Santa’s reindeer? I didn’t get that at first glance, but it would make perfect sense given what Frank was reading.

5. 9 days ago on Luann

   That’s probably even more so because a family-sized batch likely requires multiple trays being switched in and out or from one shelf to another. In fact, the fantasy gathering could only result if everyone were anticipating and preparing for it fully in advance. It would never happen all by itself with everyone merely blundering into it.

   That’s why it is considered a “religious” holiday celebration, because the word comes from “religio”, meaning a vow. It is a deliberate enactment. Religion is a human response to a heavenly revelation or a miracle. It is one side of a two-sided conversation between heaven and earth. The transmission is frequently garbled and incoherent, especially on the side of the human response; but that can be improved.

6. 15 days ago on Luann

   I had a similar problem with cursive writing. I developed my own style of printed characters that were modeled on typewriter font, which worked much better for me and were always legible.

7. 16 days ago on Luann

   I would suggest that anyone who wishes to write or affix a signature with a historically classic pen might want to consider an actual quill of the same type used by the signers of the Declaration of Independence, that must be dipped into a bottle of ink. That is what the classic fountain pen was designed to mimic, though it incorporated a reservoir of ink within the pen body. However, they must be prepared with a blotter, and prepared to clean up extraneous drips of ink that may spoil what they are writing or stain their clothing. Ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers were designed to obviate such faults. For those who feel that the ballpoint line is too uniform, the felt tip of the other can be trimmed to a shape that enables some calligraphic line-width variability.

8. 16 days ago on Luann

   Cartridges?! A classic fountain pen is filled through the nib dipped into a bottle of ink using a small lever on the side of the pen body which operates a miniature pump. However, for your cartridge pen you might refill your cartridge using a hypodermic needle to transfer ink from the bottle to the cartridge.

9. 18 days ago on Luann

   So announce in advance that alcoholic beverages will not be served on the day of the blood drive — only fruit juices and water.

10. 20 days ago on Luann

    In order to look at the actual list, one must select the alphabetic buttons A through Z. Thus one can review literally hundreds of inhibiting factors. This is the comprehensive listing to which I referred.