I Invite You to Subscribe
-
Recent Posts
Archives
Search on this Site
Categories
Blogroll
- 86,400 Seconds
- A Song Not Scored for Breathing (Cheryl/Hope)
- Actual Unretouched Photo
- Afroculinaria
- Brittle Road
- Chuck Sigars
- CMI Assn. Mgt. Blog
- Cutting Through the Crap
- Elle Jauffret
- HSV Area Restaurants
- Lizardek's Obiter Dictum
- Me and You and Ellie
- Neflix Genre Categories
- Out of the Lotus
- Perils of Caffeine in the Evening
- The New Dharma Bums
- The Singing Wench
- Unretouched Photo
- Words/Love
- writing as jo(e)
- Your Fireant
Author Archives: John Swinburn
Recipe for Uzbek Soup (Moshhorda)
Following is the recipe for the Uzbek soup our couchsurfer visitors prepared for us last night. It was beyond wonderful. Our visitors, biologists from the St. Louis area, were a delightful couple who have traveled extensively throughout Uzbekistan, Khazakstan, Russia, Mongolia, … Continue reading
Posted in Couch Surfing, Food, Travel
Leave a comment
Frozen to the Couch
Our couch-surfers had hoped to spend the day in Hot Springs yesterday, visiting Hot Springs National Park, indulging themselves in treatments at the bath houses, visiting the galleries, and otherwise behaving like interested tourists. Instead, they spent the day at … Continue reading
Posted in Couch Surfing
1 Comment
Accepting the World on its Own Terms
As I sit and ponder whether my life, or any human life, fits on this planet, it occurs to me that I’ve been pondering the wrong question. It’s not about meaning, it’s about acknowledging that there is only one clear way … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
2 Comments
Forty-Eight
Curiosity is a wonderful thing until paired with greed.
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Ice Surfers
Our couch surfer guests arrived last night just after 8:00 pm, having driven in from Little Rock through freezing rain. They escaped the worst of the storm, but after they had been here awhile, it followed them to our house. … Continue reading
Posted in Couch Surfing, Weather
Leave a comment
Killing Trees
A few days ago, as I was doing some very informal research for a piece of fiction I’ve thought about writing (involving the commission of murder by intentionally cutting down a tree so that it will strike the intended victim—more about … Continue reading
Posted in Wood, Writing
Leave a comment
Forty-Seven
I’ve found that, when my mind is tightly closed—sealed so well that nothing can get in—the best way to crack it open is with a dose of undiluted humility.
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Forty-Seven
Brutally cold nights; hot, arid days; water a necessity that is simply unavailable. I hope it’s just a fantasy that will never come to pass.
Posted in Just Thinking
Leave a comment
Fairytales on Acid for Demented Adults
The Seven Dwarfs (Blick, Flick, Glick, Plick, Quee, Snick, and Whick) arranged to meet for lunch one sultry February afternoon at an Argentinian steakhouse on The Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. They invited Goldilocks and Santa Clause to join them, anticipating both would offer … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdist Fantasy, Fiction
2 Comments
Remembering Lost Daydreams
March 8, 2009 was the day I acknowledged I would never be in a position to achieve my lifelong dream of having a “place in the country.” For as long as I can remember, I’ve wished I had a few … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
Leave a comment
Forty-Six
Understated passion is always in fashion, at least that’s the word on the street.
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Dribs and Drabs
It’s a bit early for the neighbors to be at the barbie, Graeme thought, as he opened the back door to the wooden deck off the living room. The scent of wood smoke and seared meat filled his nostrils. Once outside, he realized almost … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
2 Comments
Forty-Five
I will refrain from remarking about the crass commercialism that has, for years, hijacked February 14. I will not say that Hallmark et al have cleverly woven into a celebration of love a suggestion that failure to spend appropriately is a sign of love gone stale. I … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Risk
The idea of risk had been on her mind quite a lot lately. How much safety, security, certainty would she be willing to risk for happiness? How much exposure to danger and ugliness and turmoil would she be willing to tolerate if she had … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Leave a comment
Forty-Four
If you find it difficult to find something positive to say to a stranger to help him or her have a better day, you should be the next recipient of the positive words of a kind stranger.
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Last Night’s Living
Last night, we went to the Garland County Library for a program sponsored by the library and the Hot Springs Jazz Society. I expected it would be a good program. It was better than good; it was spectacular. The poets … Continue reading
Posted in Jazz, Literature, Music
Leave a comment
Forty-Three
I feel sorry for Brian Williams, the NBC news anchor who has been suspended without pay for six months for an exaggerated tale of reporting under fire from Iraq. I don’t approve, but I think it’s possible his memory really … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
1 Comment
Practical Magic
Every so often I come across a bit of software or technology or related online magic that captures my interest to such an extent that I drop virtually everything else I’m doing and focus on learning more about it. Lately, “every so … Continue reading
Posted in Creativity, Technology
Leave a comment
Silliness on Steroids
I’m not sure what possessed me to think about the idiocy of competitive eating at this hour. Not that it matters, of course, as almost everything I post at this hour arises from thoughts with no logical connection to the time … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Just Thinking, Rant
Leave a comment
Forty-Two
The amount of risk one is willing to take to achieve something—a desired object, a target, an accomplishment—is a measure of the importance of the objective.
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Couchsurfers
We’ll be hosting a couch surfing couple next week, for two days, while they explore the biology of the surrounding environs. A couple of early-career Ph.D. biologists with a particular interest in birds, these two folks seem (electronically, at least) to … Continue reading
Posted in Couch Surfing
Leave a comment
Forty-One
If you get a frosty reception, you’re treated coolly (or coldly) by someone. If you get into a heated argument, tempers flare. But if you’re cool as a cucumber, you’re imperturbably calm. Intriguing, isn’t it, that words suggestive of a … Continue reading
Posted in Ruminations
Leave a comment
Slaughter of Tradition
My tendency to abandon tradition in the kitchen has become a more intensely practiced habit of late than in the past. Lately, breakfasts have been the subject of my passion for twisting what has long been socially accepted as satisfying and right … Continue reading
Posted in Food, Rant
Leave a comment
Hard as Nails and Half as Sharp
More than occasionally I come across people I quickly decide are as hard as nails and half as sharp. These are people about whom I make a snap judgement based on a single encounter, maybe not even an encounter with me but an encounter I witness … Continue reading
Posted in Secular morality
Leave a comment
Forty
The hardest advice to take is to reveal yourself, the real you. Let the blemishes rise to the surface. Expose the cracked and broken edges. Stop hiding the curled and misshapen pieces of your personality. But then, who will love you? … Continue reading
Posted in Just Thinking
Leave a comment