As many of you probably already know, I use a service called FeedBlitz to send out notifications whenever I do a new post. Some of you have already signed up (using the handy sign-up form in the sidebar), but I know that the majority of you already have your own favorite feed reader, like Bloglines, for example, to do that for you.

Anyway, FeedBlitz apparently asks users to enter a reason if they decide to unsubscribe from your blog’s notifications. I received notice the other day that one of my readers had unsubscribed and the reason listed — apparently chosen from a list of options — was “Content no longer relevant.”

No longer? Continue reading ““No Longer Relevant””

I am the first to admit that it is a little early to be asking this week’s question. That means that there may likely come a time later in the year when I’ll ask the same (or a similar question again.) So now you have plenty of warning.

Your answers may rule out one side completely (or almost completely). Or you may cherry-pick the worst of the “worst” and leave yourself with some from both sides still in the running. That is entirely up to you. Continue reading “Sunday Seven - Episode 100″

I received a comment this week from one of our regular players who suggested a good quiz that could serve as one of this week’s questions. If you’d like to ask a question here, drop me a line! Continue reading “Saturday Six - Episode 171″

A Hawaii television station has received FCC approval for two sets of television station call letters that would likely have gotten them lots of complaints had someone not pointed out the error in advance.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports that KM Communications recently applied for a series of call letters for various broadcast properties. Two of the calls recently approved by the FCC — aren’t they the ones who are supposed to investigate indecency complaints? — include KUNT and KWTF.

I am not making this up. Continue reading “Calls That Could Get Calls”

I did something earlier tonight that I haven’t done in quite a while: I attended a local writers group.

It’s one of those informal gathering of writers, some published, some not, who like to present pieces they have written and get feedback. It’s intimidating, but the group seems to be made up of writers who are very positive and encouraging of each other, which is, unfortunately, rare from the writers groups I have been exposed to in the past. Continue reading “Tinkering with the Foundation”

I was overdue for an eye exam, but I didn’t go because of that. A tiny piece of one of the arms of the eyeglasses I have chipped off a couple of weeks ago, and now that arm can swing out to an angle never intended by the frame’s designer. For this reason, if I look down at the floor, the glasses have a bigger tendency to slip off.

Glasses are annoying enough without having to put up with that.

I tried contacts years ago, but I couldn’t deal with the soft ones: the thought of reaching in and peeling a piece of Saran Wrap off my eyeball did nothing for me. (Except, maybe, to turn my stomach a little.) The gas permeable contacts, the hard lenses, are healthier because they allow oxygen to get to the eye. But I was never good at “popping” the contacts out, so I had to use a little suction cup device that I won’t describe any further. You can use your own imagination and probably come up with something that was as bad as it sounds. Continue reading “Two Weird Things About My Eye Exam”

So there I was at work, minding my own business when my phone started ringing and the emails started coming in.

Those co-workers of mine who know how much I like The Price is Right had seen the wire story and wanted to make sure I had, too.

I hadn’t.

I’m sorry I did. Continue reading “Would You Win a Car from This Guy?”

America and its cars: as much as they cost these days, I supposed we’re justified to feel a certain pride in the models we buy. But where does your brand loyalty lie? Chevy or Ford? Cadillac or Dodge? Continue reading “Sunday Seven - Episode 99″

Why are Christian book stores closed on Sunday?

It may seem like a dumb question, but think about it for a minute.

I know, I know…God created the universe in six “days,” and blessed the seventh “day.”  The Bible says we should keep the Sabbath holy.  We shouldn’t work on Sunday, according to the Bible, but that’s the day many church employees work the hardest all week, delivering sermons and serving their parishioners. Continue reading “Closed on Sunday”

What’s going on with Soul Train?

I’ve been noticing lately, when I’m passing by the show on weekends as I flip through the channels, that “television’s longest-running, first-run, nationally-syndicated program in television history” is showing classic episodes from the seventies and eighties under the title The Best of Soul Train, which is usually a good sign that a show is on its last leg. Continue reading ““Soul Train” Derailed?”

The annoying emails from services like Classmates.com, which seemed like such a good idea when I first signed up, still come in. “Hey, Patrick, 7 new people did searches for your name.” “Hey, Patrick, 3 new people signed up from your graduating class.”

Of course, the people who searched for my name were looking for a different Patrick, and the 3 new people who signed up as being part of my class are people I’ve never heard of. And I venture to guess that if I break out the old yearbooks, there’d be no mention of them.

And I can’t find out any specifics without paying their monthly membership fee, which is outrageous for what you get.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, this week’s questions may have something to do with high school. Continue reading “Saturday Six - Episode 170″

This post, unfortunately, comes too late for the mindless morons who have demonstrated too much drama over the past few years on the multitude of reality shows that have cropped up like kudzu over the television landscape.  And that’s fine with me.

It’s not that I think that everyone who takes part in a reality show — in which next to nothing typically resembles “reality” — is a dimwit.  Not at all.  It’s just that as I was flipping through the channels this evening and I came upon a clip of one of the more popular reality shows on the air, I felt the need to address an important message to those of you out there who are seriously considering taking part in some future edition of one of these wastes of videotape. Continue reading “Reality Show Reality”

Here’s the post many of you have been expecting, especially those of you who have known me for any length of time. It’s the post where I tell you that since I’ve wrapped up the weekly visits to MUSC, my diet has gone by the wayside, forgotten, and that I am schmoozing my way through my now-monthly weigh-ins.

Here’s where I explain why I gained so much weight rather than losing.

There’s just one thing… Continue reading “Diet Update”

I haven’t commented, yet, on Sen. David Vitter’s name appearing in the records of a woman nicknamed a D.C. “madam.”

Unlike many Democrats — and Republicans who are fed up with certain aspects of their party — I am not particularly happy that Vitter was caught up in such a scandal. It does, after all, provide a painful bit of embarrassment for his family, especially his wife, who Vitter says forgave him years ago for whatever he might have done.

On the other hand, I do point to a page on Vitter’s own website, in which he comments about protecting the “sanctity of marriage:” Continue reading “Sanctity”

Some patients of Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital may find an unusual visitor at their bedside. His Its name is Bari, which refers to the bariatric surgery the visited patients have undergone.

It’s a high-tech solution to a problem of proximity: patients want to be able to interact with their doctor, but sometimes the doc is miles away working other cases. Continue reading “But Does It Make You Turn Your Head and Cough?”