Past Posts

The Bible and the Toyota

It’s doubtful the people who populate the Bible had any inkling that the automobile would one day replace the donkey on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, or wherever, but your devious scribe has conjured a way to link the holy book with the modern mode of conveyance. The inspiration came two weeks ago today […]

c8b6ed_a74d7e2fbc584b62b76b50f178ab6645mv2

Pressing the Press

“Blood on Their Hands” by Bob Brink. (Provided by TouchPoint Press) Persistence pays off. Hold that thought while I digress into an observation about a modern phenomenon: Our vocabulary needs to change with the ascent of technology. I didn’t just type that. I tapped it. That’s because I used a computer keyboard, which produced the […]

c8b6ed_69d9cdf4a9564da58d289c462487b199~mv2

Bob’s 2018 Christmas Letter

U.S. Capitol BOB’S ANNUAL CHRISTMAS EPISTLE Dear Family, Friends, Citizens, Lend me your ears. Mine have not been serving me all that well lately. And I don’t think wax is the culprit. More like the din emanating from the U.S. Capitol and reverberating throughout the land. Okay, Bob, hold it right there. That’s a contentious […]

Saturated Fat is Good for You

There it was, in the March 30 edition of the Palm Beach Post, part of the syndicated People’s Pharmacy column by Terry & Joe Graedon: “The researchers found no link between saturated-fat consumption and a higher risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular complications.” The research they referenced was a meta-analysis involving 72 studies – you […]

Bewitched, Bothered by Between

“And Shutterfly expects full-year revenue to be between $903 million to $920 million.” That sentence was in an investment newsletter email. It is another example of an awful grammar error that has become endemic in recent years. Can you spot it? It screams “illiterate.” Is there anything more grating to the ear than between such-and-such […]

Health-Care Labyrinth

You’ve had a sore back for a long time and want ozone injections developed by Nevada physician Frank Shallenberger, disseminator of the Real Cures newsletter, as a natural therapy for back and joint problems. It’s an alternative treatment, so hardly any board-certified physician is aware of it; you discovered it through your own research. Step […]

c8b6ed_8634fdc8486241558f21b40cffe345c7~mv2

Graft, Money, Opportunism = GMOs

GMOs are safe?   Recently, Will Coggin of the Center for Consumer Freedom disseminated to newspapers an essay saying science shows genetic “improvement” of foods “is perfectly safe.” Coggin’s lobbyist outfit works for publicist Richard Berman, who also is behind similar organizations championing big corporations’ activities to the detriment of the public. Their contention that genetically modified foods […]

c8b6ed_88cb82ca129b4644bd3843f9a21b941f~mv2

The Uncommon Comma

No Commoners Here My all-time favorite cartoon appeared in The New Yorker a few decades ago. A woman in a long formal gown and elbow-length gloves is at a posh party, brandishing one of those long-stemmed cigarette holders common among aristocrats in the day, her face sour with hauteur. Next to her is a tuxedoed […]

c8b6ed_77aceb2ecfbc4a3fb5a9a16194c9f28e~mv2

Global Warming

Forest fire out West caused by global warming   Which is a worse way to die, by water or fire? The way things are going, future generations may have to choose between living where the ocean swells beyond the shoreline and swallows them, or far inland where forest fires fry them. Oh, but those are […]

as well as …

“As well as” can be expected Weighty issue How often do you see a sentence with a series of items separated by commas, and “as well as” preceding the last item? Happens all the time. Here’s an example from the Detroit Free Press: “Obviously, it’s tougher to get a job, overcome health issues and pay […]

1 2 34