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Today is the second anniversary of the coordinated incursions by Hamas into southern Israel. During the initial incursions approximately 1200 people were killed, including 350 civilians who were attending a music festival. About 250 civilians and soldiers were also captured and taken into Gaza as hostages, which escalated the initial attacks into an ongoing war. The peace and love, noted in the above photograph, is difficult to find in southern Israel and Gaza today.

My Holy Land Trip (2017)

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Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in Glendale, Arizona has just begun. I wrote about Charlie in my previous post, including about his love for the youth of this country. In July of this year, Charlie sat down with Tucker Carlson for a wide-ranging interview that lasted almost two hours. I listened to that interview then and replayed it in the days after he was killed.

The interview on the Tucker Carlson Network (TCN) website has the lengthy title: Charlie Kirk: How Debt Has Radicalized Young...

Some time last year my first issue of The Nation came in the mail. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember subscribing to the magazine. I may not have been paying attention when looking over some kind of trial offer; I may have been overly impressed by The Nation’s stated belief in intellectual freedom (more later), or maybe a friend ordered the magazine for me, suspecting that I would benefit from it. Who knows?

In any case, the magazines started to arrive in the mail, and I would dutifully...

Note: This article contains an excerpt (at the end) from my book A Catholic Prays Scripture (Volume 2): concerning the sacraments.

My wife and I go to different churches. I go to St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church; she goes to Lifegate, which per their website is “an interdenominational church, which means that people from all faith backgrounds (or no faith background) are welcome!” I would describe my church as religious; Lifegate’s website claims that their church is not “religious” because “...

The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham, edited by M. L. Wine, was published in 1973, as part of a series known as Revels Plays. At that time, M. L. White was a Professor of English at the University of Illinois (Chicago). In the book, White wrote about a play entitled The tragedie of Arden of Feuersham & blackwill, which was registered in London on April 3, 1592, by the London bookseller Edward White. When the play was initially registered the author of the play was not listed. The...

I picked a bad time to become an author. At a time when it is easier than ever to write and publish (or self-publish) a book, fewer people are reading books. The law of supply and demand is working against me. Mary Harrington (more from her later) wrote that “only 54 percent of Americans read even one book in the last year.” Reading (e.g., total words) may have increased but today’s reading tends to be more digital, random, and disjointed.

I am reminded of this trend every time I get on an...

Pictured above (on the top shelf in my study) are my World Book Year Books for years 1981-2018. My earlier 1963-1980 yearbooks are tucked away in my study’s closet: that’s 56 books in total. The books on the shelf are so high that I cannot reach them unless I haul in a ladder from the garage. They are mostly for décor – to make my study appear more studious.

World Book Encyclopedias

As best I can remember my parents – in the 1960s, probably 1962 – purchased a set of World Book Encyclopedias, to...

[The following is an excerpt from BS2: An Autobiography, copyright 2021.]

I first became aware of [the black dog term] when reading about Winston Churchill, but it goes back even further to Samuel Johnson, and probably even further than that.

The black dog is a metaphor for depression. It is apropos because it is more than just a feeling. It has a life of its own. It has a presence. It can sneak up on you. It can watch from a distance or walk in your way. It can bite. It can track your every...

I love the design of this book’s cover – the bitemark in Apple’s apple logo – replaced by a Chinese dragon. The artwork reinforces the overall narrative of the book, Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company, by Patrick McGee (copyright 2025).

In the author’s own words: “Apple in China tells a huge untold story – how Apple used China as a base from which to become the world’s most valuable company, and in doing so, bound it’s future inextricably to a ruthless authoritarian...

I received a Birdbuddy Smart Hummingbird Feeder for my birthday. My granddaughters helped me install the feeder on July 25th. We placed some real and fake red flowers near the feeder to attract any hummingbirds that might fly by. The feeder’s camera was linked to an app on my iPhone and then we waited – and waited. Nothing.

After relocating the feeder a couple of times, a wannabe hummingbird (a small finch) showed up long enough to trip the camera, but its beak didn’t work, and it moved on.

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I recently completed Photo Album #59. It covers seven months of my life, from October 13, 2024 (when the family went “glamping”) to May 11, 2025 (Mother’s Day). Album #59 contains 330 photographs and eleven other things (postcards, brochures, maps of Maui) that have been inserted in the big (4” x 6”) storage sleeves. The album also has 165 mini-sleeves (1-1/2” x 6”), in which I have inserted 52 smaller (trimmed) photographs and 101 “captions” (e.g., to explain or supplement the photographs)....

Some authors write alternate endings to their stories; I haven’t yet. I have, however, written an alternate answer to a question that I asked in my book Sir Francis Burdett. The question and answer, as asked in the book (pages 94 and 95), are shown below.

+++ PUBLISHED ANSWER

RCB: Disraeli, in the clip I just played, noted that you often quoted Shakespeare. I encountered some of that as I read your speeches before Parliament; but I also noted that you often interjected Latin phrases. What was...

Calling all Shakespeare experts:

Arthur Gray, in his book A Chapter in the Early Life of Shakespeare: Polesworth in Arden, theorized that a young William Shakespeare was schooled at Polesworth, Warwickshire, England, by a literary salon he called the Polesworth Circle.

In my book/historical play, The Polesworth Circle: The Education of William Shakespeare, I theorize that Shakespeare was taught the art of storytelling at Polesworth, by Raphael Holinshed, the great chronicler of England,...

As noted in my first post, two of my interests are architecture and religion. That combination attracted me to the Holy Family Shrine (holyfamilyshrine.com), which is located just off Interstate 80 south of Gretna, Nebraska (between Omaha and Lincoln). Daylilies are prominent now – along the walkway that leads from the visitor center to the chapel. The colors change as the seasons change.

On most of the odd Thursdays of each month, during the afternoons, you can find me at the shrine,...

As noted in my author bio, I am interested in genealogy (mainly my families), architecture, history, and religion. So, I may use this blog to comment on those topics. I will also use the blog to comment on my books (e.g., errors noted, new information, alternative wording, comments on reviews). Time will tell; if you have any questions or suggestions, send me an email.