Month: November 2014
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Jasper Adalmorn Maltby
Part of the Cool Civil War Names series. “A friend of Grant’s is a friend of mine,” said Abraham Lincoln, probably. This quote (were it real) holds true today as we consider Jasper Maltby, an Ohio boy who like 99.9% of the Civil War upper echelon served in the Mexican War in the 1840s, and then…
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The Church of NaNoWriMo
My name is Chad Comello and I am a failed novelist. I’m in the midst of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which issues a lofty goal for aspiring literary types: write 50,000 words in the span of 30 days, no matter what. Budding scribes of every stripe participate in this movement throughout the month of November,…
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Einterstellar
My new definition of cosmic irony: to be in the midst of Walter Isaacson’s Einstein: His Life and Universe as I went to see Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, a marvel of a film that directly references Einstein and his theory of relativity. I had a chuckle during the film when that moment arrived, not because I…
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Three Oatmeal Truths
Today at the library, I read Matthew “The Oatmeal” Inman’s The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances, an extended version of his original web comic about ultra-running. It’s of a piece with his usual ardent and absurdist takes on varying topics. In the book he illustrates a few tips for becoming a…
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The Plutonium Plot: An Ode to Doc Brown
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, When Doc bumped his head and made it so tender; He could not recall his singular sight: Capacitors fluxing and time circuits alight. Calvin the sailor with life jacket steady Inquired, ‘Hey Doc, are you now ready To freeze space-time in the tower-clock? Banish the thought of paradox. Not…
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I Kill with the Earth
A poem in prose I kill with the earth, that with which I line the walls of my room. With a paint brush choked with white diatomaceous earth-powder, I dab and fluff along the crack where the walls meet the floor to discourage the passage of bedbugs into my abode. The powder floats up and down through…