Brian Jay Jones's Blog, page 35

Where I'll Be. . .

I'm pleased to announce I'm officially confirmed to give two talks at Washington Irving's Sunnyside next Saturday, October 17, as part of Historic Hudson Valley's daytime "Legend Weekend" events. 

I'll be speaking at 11:30 and again at 2:00–two very quick little chats about Irving and Sunnyside, with ample time for questions, which is usually the most fun part of any talk. And my thanks to Rob Schweitzer at HHV for his help arranging everything.

If you're in Tarrytown next weekend, come say...

Until the Wind Changes

Almost as if someone flipped a switch, the trees are suddenly changing colors and sloughing off their leaves like a raggy old coat.  The chipmunks in our back yard are running back and forth between our two old chestnuts and their hole by an old stone wall, their mouths crammed with the big shiny nuts as they disappear, tails twirling, into their hidey-hole. And for the first time in half a year, a strong wind suddenly kicked up from the southwest, pounding against the stone chimney on our...

Another Reason to Love Your Local Library

As part of the research for my latest project, I've been closely scouring the Washington Post from the mid-1950s on.  While doing research at the Library of Congress last year, one of their typically awesome librarians steered me away from the microfiche and over to the online resource ProQuest.

If you're not a research nerd, I'll explain.  ProQuest is a database made up of tons of different newspapers — the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor , to...

Legends of the Fall

Fall seems to be officially here. Temperatures have settled squarely into the low- to mid-70s, and the air is starting to get that delicious crisp edge.  Some evenings you can smell fireplace smoke, cutting its way through the chill to find your nose.  The weather is that odd combination of brisk and balmy, so you can wear shorts as you work in the yard, but still need a sweatshirt, preferably with the sleeves pushed up to your elbows. It's my favorite time of year.

Fall also means Halloween...

A History of New York (sort of…)

They Might Be Giants + puppets + Craig Ferguson = Win

Consumer Confidence

My internet connection has been down for a while, which would normally have done wonders for my productivity, except I was laid up with the flu for a few days and got nothing written anyway.

Normally when the internet goes down, I ride it out–it generally takes a while, but I have some oddly misplaced faith that the system will right itself.  This time, that didn't seem to be happening.  I needed to call Comcast, but typically, I didn't have Comcast's number handy since that's the sort of...

Ruht roh….

Fans of Scooby Doo generally agree that the show jumped the shark with the introduction of Scooby's annoying nephew, Scrappy Doo.  And if you've ever asked the universe rhetorically, "What in the hell were they thinking?"  or, maybe better, "Who's to blame?" then television writer Mark Evanier has an answer for you.  In fact, it's a confession—because Mark Evanier is, indeed, the guy who came up with Scrappy Doo. Or, at least, mostly. As he says over on his web site:

People ask me if I knew...

Ensure Domestic Tranquility….

September 17, 2009 marks the 222nd anniversary of the day 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed their names to their completed document and, in a burst of what can only be called skeptical optimism, sent the Constitution to the states for formal ratification. (My home state of Maryland, I'm pleased to say, while it made a generally poor showing at the Convention itself—two of its five delegates didn't even sign the thing — was the seventh state to ratify...

Cafe No Way

I did something the other day I have never done: I wrote in a coffee shop. Or, rather, I tried to write. And after trying, I've determined one thing: those sitting in Starbucks, tapping away happily on their laptop at one of those little round tables, are likely writing fiction.

Don't tell me you're not, because I know you are.  And I know because you don't have your table cluttered with all the assorted crap that we non-fiction writers carry around with us.  Frankly, I'm jealous— because it...

This Week in Nerdom

I took down the red, white and blue bunting we leave hanging on our front porch all summer long, retiring it to the basement until we're ready to pull it out next Memorial Day.  As I walked past the big pot of dahlias I keep at the head of the driveway this weekend, I noticed some of the stalks browning slightly, and started to curse myself for not watering them enough when I realized that, yeah, it's getting to be that time when the plants and flowers start to turn in for the season.

We...