Category Archives: music
Mary Stewart’s First Novel
Mary Stewart was a lecturer in English at Durham University when she wrote her first book in the 1950s. She was prompted to finally take the leap and write a book after an ectopic pregnancy nearly killed her and led … Continue reading
Wilder’s Bridge of Love
Thanks to Thornton Wilder, I have now read 1/5 of the 100 novels that Modern Library proclaimed to be the best of the 20th century. Before picking it from the list, I questioned whether or not I had ever heard … Continue reading
Summer Solstice 2025, Part 3: Amarillo
Amarillo, the Spanish word for yellow, is pronounced “ah-muh-ree-yo” but for the town in the center of the Texas panhandle it is commonly pronounced “am-uh-rill-oh” as immortalized in Neil Sedaka’s Is This the Way to Amarillo and George Strait’s Amarillo … Continue reading
Summer Solstice 2025, Part 2: Erick
After leaving OKC, we rolled along Interstate 40 from OKC to Amarillo, Texas. About a decade ago, we visited a couple of attractions along the way: the Heartland of America Museum in Weatherford in 2015 and the Route 66 Museum … Continue reading
¡Arriba, Arriba! ¡Ándale, Ándale!
Digital technology makes it easy to modify the rate of media playback, and pitch correction makes it far more practical. My wife routinely plays YouTube videos at high speeds, and some folks speed up their audiobooks and podcasts. Recently, Audible … Continue reading














