Columns

Under a Tuscan Spell

A good friend recently gave me some bottles of wine. He is a fan of red Italian wines, and among those he gave me were bottles of Brunello di Montalcino (Brunello di Mont-al-cino). Just saying the name is a joy. Brunello di Montalcino is made from a local strain of Sangiovese (Sahn-joh-veh-she) grape grown in the... Read More

The Wine Spot

July 17, 2025

Moonless too?

Dew glistens, gathers like wet dust until it leaves, vanishes, loses its hold like sunshine, its horizon. Our march through time stops only if life shudders then halts for nature to pause, consider new paths, when to unload morning dew.

Poet's Corner

July 12, 2025

Just a ‘Closer’ Walk

This title is about walking down the road at about 3 mph, instead of driving 35-55-plus mph, the result being that your foot on the road versus your foot on the pedal puts you intimately closer to your ever-passing surroundings. Walking, you are “at one with the ground” (Fred Flintstone’s feet were only on the... Read More

Essays

July 10, 2025

Movies You Missed from 20 Years Ago: The Devil’s Rejects

The Devil’s Rejects (7/10 Rating) Released July 22, 2005 For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Splatter Horror, Crime, Horror R: Sadistic violence, strong sexual content, language, and drug use 1h 47m Rob Zombie’s sophomore follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses is probably his best work to date. When it was released, the improvement... Read More

Movies You Missed

June 17, 2025

SANGRIA, SHALL WE DANCE?

Recently, I discovered a YouTube video by Camila Cabello and Pharrell Williams entitled “Sangria Wine” and the associated Sangria Dance Challenge. It was released in 2018. The Hall and Oates’ song “Out of Touch” must be about me. This is scary. Sangria has been around for a long, long time. It dates back to when the... Read More

The Wine Spot

June 12, 2025

Harbor

Was it Mystic where we met? So near the sea, ours to sail where dreams could take us. Books I want to write began there, where I felt love as forceful as waves that lured me to see chapters writing themselves penned when your eyes culled words like magic.

Poet's Corner

June 10, 2025

Night of the Whip-poor-will

Since summer arrives this month, I am writing about something which happened one summer when I was around 6 or 7 years old (1957 or 1958). Wikipedia (before that, Compton’s, World Book, Britannica, etc.), says that the whip-poor-will is a nocturnal country bird which lives in a dry-deciduous or evergreen-deciduous forest that is without underbrush... Read More

Essays

June 2, 2025

Movies You Missed From 20 Years Ago: Batman Begins

Released June 15, 2005 Streaming on Max & Netflix, For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Action Epic, Epic, Superhero, Action, Crime PG-13: Intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements 2h 20m After 1997’s Batman & Robin, it would be 8 more years before we got to see a new actor take on... Read More

Movies You Missed

May 17, 2025

A FEW GUIDELINES I SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED

Today more and more wines are bottled with metal screw caps. I understand it is more economical, and it reduces spoilage. If, however, you are opening a bottle of wine with a cork, consider these signs as a possible warning of spoiled wine, as mentioned in a Vinovest blog; A bulging cork may indicate heat... Read More

The Wine Spot

May 14, 2025

Detectives

Unpaid, undaunted children searched hallways and rooms. Looked under rugs and bedspreads, pillows and cushions and legs of suspicious chairs. Their search lasted hours and more, until each sleuth knew for sure their hunt had revealed their pet dog had gone outdoors.

Poet's Corner

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