Department of Worthless Stock: Big City Bagels

Back in a previous life when I had more disposable income (and a more reckless attitude toward risk), I engaged in some stock market daytra...

Toasty Puggles

My Puggles Eddie Haskell and Chauncey Gardiner know exactly where to go after a few minutes in the single-digit January cold, and that is d...

The Odd Couple - Grantland Street Players

Detroit-area readers, listen up: I am pleased to plug for my good friend Jim Wyatt the Grantland Street Players and their production of N...

The Story of a Pair of Boots

My wife has owned the pair of leather boots pictured on the left for over 20 years, and the boots have always been one of her favorites. Th...

A Dissertation on Prester John

Woodcut image of mythical priest-king Prester John from Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) Readers with an interest in Euro...

Academic Goodies in the Mail

The mail carrier brought a few reminders of my recent walk across the commencement stage at the University of Toledo in the acquisition of ...

Recommendation for Kodak P850 Digital Camera Repair

My favorite camera - a Kodak P850 point-and-click machine with lots of cool features - took a calamitous drop of three feet onto concrete a...

The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote. The newspapers came and made Jody a nati...

Winter and Thunder

A warm front passing through the region created an unusual (for Ohio) weather pattern this morning that caused me to put on a pair of shoes...

On Saturday Morning College Classes

I am teaching a Saturday morning course this semester in Ohio History that is geared toward: a) people seeking a teaching certificate in se...

Phone Harassment

Over the past few hours come local nutjob has been making profanity-laden calls to my private residence. I was originally going to simply i...

Wintertime and Weight Gain Blues

Stepping on the scale the last few weeks has been discouraging, as between my heavy holiday eating and lower physical activity the last few...

On Buckeye Express Outages, CMTS Failures, and Dark Internets

Left: How a CMTS is supposed to work According to the customer service representative I just spoke with, the lengthy service outage with Buc...

Quirky Websites: The Big Red Button

The Quirky Website of the Week is a semi-regular feature on this site. Feel free to recommend other quirky websites in the Comments sectio...

Meet Ashley, a Rescue Dachshund

Pictured on your left is Ashley, a female, 16-pound Dachshund who is about five years old. Ashley's owner surrendered her to a local d...

Using an Online Permutations Calculator

In one of my online classes I discouraged students from using the same pair of primary sources in their essay that another student already...

On the Limitations of Online Translation Tools

Left: Han Han might well be a literary genius, but you will never know by relying on virtual translation tools I came across a news article ...

On Used Auto Parts and Buying on eBay

I have used the Internet marketplace known as eBay for many purchases over the years, but I recently engaged in a different (for me) form ...

Local Business Profile: J-Cups Pizza

Living as I do in the middle of the American Rust Belt, whenever possible I like to patronize and promote local businesses. "Local Bus...

Quirky Websites: Lolcat (and Loldog) Generator

The Quirky Website of the Week is a semi-regular feature on this site. Feel free to recommend other quirky websites in the Comments section...

Profiting from the Haitian Earthquake Disaster

While surfing eBay a few minutes ago, I had the idea to check and see if any vendors were offering merchandise related to the deadly Haitia...

Some Initial Thoughts on the Killer Haitian Eathquake

Earthquake damage to a shanty town on the outskirts of Port au Prince; photo by Matt Marek/American Red Cross/AP I sat riveted to the televi...

The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote. The thought that life could be better is...

Helen Flanagan's Cleavage To Stay In Coronation Street

Fans of Helen Flanagan will be pleased to know that she has no plans to leave her role of Rosie Webster on Coronation Street. Helen said, &q...

When Luck Appears, Disappears, and Reappears

As I arrived at my BGSU office this morning, I paused and could not remember turning off my headlights. Rather than risk the draining of th...

On Ballroom Dancing Lessons

We are a long, long ways from this photo Many years ago I made my wife a promise that after I finished my doctorate I would accompany her in...

Random Wikiness

When I am looking for inspiration in my writing - or during those moments when I am utterly at a loss for entertainment - I visit Wikipedi...

Things I Have Learned After Six Weeks of Using a CPAP Machine

Left: The ResMed Mirage Quattro CPAP mask: my connection to restful sleep After completing my recent sleep studies and learning the signifi...

Tips on Writing a Biographical Paper for a College History Class

I scoured the Internet the other day looking for tips on writing biographies for a college history class. In actuality I was just looking f...

A Degree is Never Official Until the Updating of Transcripts

I have been compulsively checking the university website for the past 17 days to check if the registrar got around to updating my transcrip...

The Quote Shelf

A frequent feature on this site; feel free to comment on the quote or to supply a competing quote. A lengthier quote today that jumped out ...

On Designing College Courses While Avoiding Expensive Textbooks

Left: current version of one of my online courses that minimizes the use of textbooks; click graphic for a larger image Over the past decade...

On Holiday Events and Being Normal Again

For many years I worked in the restaurant and entertainment industries, and I found it difficult to attend all the various holiday gatherin...

Rapid Rhetoric - GADROON

This is an irregular feature - both in frequency and oddness - dedicated to a word I came across that I have never previously used. gadroon...

New Year Resolutions

I fall into the camp of those who create and attempt to keep resolutions each New Year , and I figured that the start of the new decade was...