This is Clancy. Clancy is our beagle.  He’s just about the sweetest, kindest-hearted animal you can imagine.  He doesn’t even bay – the only time he howls is when he hears a fire engine or wild dogs.  The things that matter to Clancy are chewies, chasing his Squeaky Monkey, making sure that no one is […]

Today’s installment of 20 Questions features Blogdramedy. Blogdramedy is one of my very first blog buddies, and I couldn’t be more pleased to feature her.  I like to picture Blogdramedy in black & white, like a female reporter in an old Howard Hawks movie.  Gumption.  Moxie.  Sass.  Chutzpah. Also, she lives on a boat at […]

Jules, over at Go Guilty Pleasures, and I get along great.  We both like things that are funny, we both live in states where, bizarrely, you can’t pump your own gas, we both have had people reach our blogs because of searches related to chipmunks.  Birds of a feather.  But there is one thing we […]

Over at H.E. Ellis, she’s been celebrating her 100th post with 10 lists of top 10’s. In one of them, she mentioned the song “Goodbye Horses” being forever rendered creepy by the movie The Silence of the Lambs.  Now, it’s not a particularly good song, really, but it got me thinking about songs that, because […]

A special note in my Cool Book today for the protesters in Barnaul, Russia.  People in the Siberian city are protesting corruption in politics, both in the region and at the national level (I know, you say Whaaaat? Government corruption?  In Russia??).   Specifically, they’re protesting the impending switch Vladimir Putin is making from the parliament […]

Moderate publicity is being given to the American Library Association’s announcement of the Youth Media Awards (highlighting the best books, videos or audiobooks for children).  Among them, the Newberry Award went to Jack Gantos’ Dead End In Norvelt, and The Caldecott Medal (for picture books) went to A Ball For Daisy about a dog who […]

The Oscar Nominations came out today, and you know what that means!  That’s right!  It’s time for my annual rant to my film students about the meaningless crassness of the Oscar awards!  Hurray!  And this year, you can share in the crabbiness! I know, they seem fun and harmless, but the thing to understand about […]

I would like to take this moment to offer a sincere, public and redemptive apology for my recent comments.  I in no way meant them.  And while I stand by my assertion that some of them were taken out of context, and others I was tricked in to saying, I regret any hurt they may […]