I am fairly sure this expression is more about luring and killing flies than about capturing them.  And, unless one is a geneticist double-checking old Drosophila (fruit-fly) studies, I’m not sure why anyone wants flies anyway.  But aside from the obvious meaning, I’m pondering a second meaning for this expression.  It doesn’t say you don’t […] Read More »

When we were cute little smart-aleck boys barely old enough for school, we used to enjoy saying “I ain’t gonna say ain’t no more, cuz ain’t ain’t a word in the dictionary.  Ain’t that great?” The word ain’t may or may not actually be in the dictionary, but I do know what it means.  It’s […] Read More »

I used to be thinner.  In fact, there was a time when I was downright skinny.  I didn’t have a washboard stomach, but I had speed bump ribs.  And I desperately wanted to be good at sports.  There was an irrational hope in me, that probably still hasn’t completely gone away, that somehow, if I […] Read More »

I like comics and written cartoons.  I like funny papers and serials and editorial cartoons.  A lot of what I like are multi-panel strips, some with long-running stories.  But I also like one-panel stand-alone cartoons.  One of my all time favorites was published right after a city in New York state received meters of snow, […] Read More »

When I was a little boy, I fell down a lot.  I had a healthy sense of adventure and exploration, but not much sense of balance and almost no muscular coordination.  My first stitches came when I fell off the monkey bars at the playground, split open my chin, nearly bit my tongue off, and […] Read More »