No Longer the World's Slowest Blog

I generally agree with Don D'Ammassa's " Ground Rules ," though I'm at the point where I don't read Websites li...

[[Another in an occasional series of republishing some of my old USENET essays (in this case, someone reminded me about this as I'd f...

I'll be on a couple of panels at Worldcon: Thu Aug 30 12:00:pm-1:30:pm  How to Moderate a Panel Addams Veteran panelists dis...

Original Version: February 1978 Updated: July 2007 Updated Again: July 2012 2007 was a bad year for health issues in our household. Le...

I joined USENET newsgroups in April 1988 due to the good graces of Massachusetts-based geek Jim Murray.  He was running USENET on a home sy...

I think Rodney was basically a decent man who did some bad things but was treated horribly by many people in Los Angeles. The cops used him...

Dear Representative Murphy I'm writing to ask you to think of a clever way to keep student college loan rates low. It is not at a...

Commentator Charles M. Blow wrote an interesting essay called " We Are Not Stupid ," in which he wonders how people can follow R...

April 2012 marks 10 years of my erratic blogging, 17 1/2 years of being active on the Web, 24 years of being a USENET participant, and 28 1...

2011 was a good year for movies, but it was not a great year for movies.  Last year, I found The Social Network , The King's Speech an...

I can't blame everything on my lack of sleep. After all, things are going well, but inadequate sleep makes such a difference! I've...

Don't forget to vote today!  And always bring your photo ID with you. Remember Before You Vote LAURIE D. T. MANN Many pol...

The average investor who profited from stock market roller coaster of 2008 and 2009 in no way caused it - we're investors, we have 401...

Of course any consenting adults who want to get married should be able to get married! What's so hard about that? It should be obvio...

Remember Before You Vote Laurie D. T. Mann Many politicians make it clear they don't care who dies, so long as the wealthy and corpor...

I saw and liked most of the movies nominated for Oscars for last year (of the major flicks, haven't seen True Grit, 127 Hours or Black S...

I'm a longtime book fan and I married a serious book collector back in 1977. Even when we had little money, we usually found a way to ...

People who know me, either in real life or maybe just online, know I have a bad temper. In response to a particularly egregious court verd...

The government in Allegheny county often has good ideas - then mars the good ideas with lousy implmementation. Take Christmas tree recycli...

Back in about 1994 (or maybe it was 1995), my husband Jim started to note where to get decent beer in Pittsburgh in a site called Jim's ...