Target’s sales are in freefall. Brian Cornell, the company’s longtime CEO, has fallen on his sword and stepped down.
There is no shortage of glee in the press about all this. Target was one of the companies that abandoned DEI policies in the wake of Trump’s election, and the general shift in the national mood.
CNN informs us that, “reading for pleasure has fallen drastically over the past 20 years”. This will shock no one.
According to the report, reading rates have declined about 3 percent per year since 2003, for a total decline of 40 percent since then.
As is always the case when dealing with a country as diverse as the United States (and over two decades, to boot), aggregate numbers provide an incomplete picture.
The greatest reading declines have occurred among African Americans and rural Americans. No big surprise there, considering that these two groups are the most dependent on public education.
I also suspect that some of the decline can be attributed to the dying off of older generations. Since 2003, millions of members of the Greatest Generation (the WWII generation) and the Silent Generation have left us. My maternal grandmother (born in 1922) was a very avid reader. She might have been counted among our readers in a 2003 survey, but not in 2023. Continue reading “Reading rates down again: are we just distracted, or not quite as smart as we used to be? “
What do you say when everyone involved in a public controversy is kind of a jerk?
I’ve seen the online buzz about the so-called “Phillies Karen”, who demanded an errant ball (back?) from a father and his son after the father grabbed it.
If you watch the video, the man ran down the aisle to an area where he wasn’t seated. He did appear to snatch the ball away from Phillies Karen as she was either grabbing it, or about to grab it.
Suzy Favor Hamilton and I have two things in common: we were both born in August 1968, and we were both drawn to running at a young age.
That is where the similarities end. Hamilton made it to the Olympics in 1992, 1996, and 2000. I made it only to the Ohio State Cross Country Championships in 1985—where I placed about midway through the pack.
After her running career ended, Hamilton also worked as a high-price escort in Las Vegas for a while. As in running, her competitive instincts took over. She explains in an interview (above) how she became fixated on achieving a top ranking on The Erotic Review, a website where clients review escorts.
By this time she was also a wife and a mother. Hamilton’s husband was aware of her activities. Whether this was some kind of a kink for him, or merely something he tolerated, is unclear. But he knew what she was doing.
One thing is clear: she got careless. By 2012, Hamilton was in her 40s, and her Olympic career was in the past. She was never a household name or a major celebrity, in the way that Bruce Jenner, Michael Phelps, or Kristi Yamaguchi were. Nevertheless, she was a public figure of some renown, and she was asking for trouble when she revealed her identity to several clients. Continue reading “Suzy Favor Hamilton: Gen X ‘Fast Girl’”
In a mass on September 7, Pope Leo XIV will formally canonize Carlo Acutis (1991 – 2006). I.e., Acutis will become a saint in the Catholic Church, right along with Peter and Paul, but also more recent saints like Oscar Romero and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Acutis will become the “first Millennial saint”. Much is being made of the fact that he was computer-literate, and “liked the Simpsons”. Acutis did much of his evangelizing online, through websites he created.
Carlo Acutis, a teen who coded a website of miracles before his death at 15, is poised to become the Catholic Church’s first millennial saint. He is remembered both for his love of technology and his devotion to faith, becoming known as "God's influencer." pic.twitter.com/zFLriIjM7s
I have seen some objections on social media about making so much of Acutis’s “Millennial” status. I agree that there is a bit of overhype on this aspect of the youth’s life. He died before anyone was talking much about the Millennial generation; and how much did generational identity really concern him anyway, at the age of 15? Continue reading “Saint Carlo Acutis”
I have been watching some old movies from the 1980s recently. Some have been movies that I saw, but have long since forgotten. Others are iconic films of that era that I never got around to seeing when they were current.
For example, I recently wrote a post about Mystic Pizza (1988). Last night I watched Risky Business (1983). I will have a post about Risky Business soon.
A scene from Mystic Pizza (1988)
One thing I’ve noticed is that many films created in 1980-something as disposable teen comedies were actually pretty good. In 1985, did anyone imagine that people in 2025 would still be talking about The Breakfast Club? Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) has been recognized by the American Film Institute for its merits.
Another thing I’ve noticed is the diversity in movies from that bygone era. In 1985, an original movie, properly executed, could make a lot of people rich. But the economics of the 21st-century box office encourage conservatism and a tiresome emphasis on franchise films. Continue reading “The comparative joys of old (1980s) movies”
More details are emerging about the deranged inner world of Robin Westman. He/she/whatever is the transgender gunman who shot up a Catholic church filled with kids last month, on the first day of classes at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
It seems that Westman had a girlfriend named Abigail Bodick, who was a “furry”. For the uninitiated out there, a “furry” is a person who identifies as an animal, usually a dog or a cat.
Yes, this is completely insane. And this brand of insanity certainly didn’t flourish in the 1970s and 1980s, when I was a kid. This is a Gen Z thing.
But who is to blame for Gen Z? Certainly not the much-disdained Baby Boomers. The Gen Z birth years run from 1997 to 2012. A Baby Boomer born in 1947 turned 50 in 1997. That was a little old to be having kids. Continue reading “Gen Xer = bad parent?”
I recently discovered that someone was trying to gain entry to my WordPress site. This had been going on for about two weeks. Based on my site’s usage records, the activity was small-scale, and probably perpetrated by an individual, or a small group of individuals who had chosen my site at random. None of the attempts had been successful.
I already had an extensive security plan through my hosting service, but I took yet one more step to lock down Edward Trimnell Books. This was done mostly just for peace of mind, and to stick a thumb in the eye of the cybercrooks. Continue reading “Website hacking, and the opportunity costs of cybercrime”
If you’ve been on social media much (always a big mistake), you’re aware of the story of Laken Snelling, the 21-year-old member of the University of Kentucky’s stunt team, whose dead newborn infant was found in her dorm room closet last week.
The media has been filled with photos of Ms. Snelling, who is blonde and fit. There have also been photos of her boyfriend, a youth named Connor who does not appear to be overly bright. Some stories report that the current boyfriend is not the father of the deceased newborn. The plot thickens.
I have been avoiding making a post about this story, hoping that it would go away. And this story would have gone away—if it would even have been a story at all—had it taken place in the inner city, or in some poor white sector of Appalachia. Continue reading “Our “hot girls” crime fixation”
On September 2, 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally, effectively ending World War II. The American postwar occupation of Japan began shortly thereafter.
Japanese forces committed many atrocities during World War II. Their victims included subjugated Asian populations, as well as Allied prisoners of war. The postwar era would bring a reckoning. Among the first tasks of the US occupation authorities was to round up Japanese officials who were guilty of war crimes.
Japanese officials aboard the USS Missouri on September 2 1945 for the surrender ceremony
Adjacent to this was determining the culpability of Emperor Hirohito. Hirohito’s future status was a sensitive topic.
The Allies did not demand Hirohito’s overthrow and imprisonment as an explicit condition of surrender, which prevented Japan from continuing the fight until the last man. But Hirohito’s long-term continuation on the Chrysanthemum Throne was not a foregone conclusion, either. That would depend on whether or not the American occupation authorities would try him as a war criminal.
In a worst-case scenario, Hirohito would hang, and the Japanese would stage a general insurrection against the US occupation. A bad outcome for everyone. Therefore, the options had to be weighed carefully, and it would all begin with an investigation.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in February, US Vice President JD Vance ruffled some feathers with the following words:
“Now, within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not, and thank God they lost the Cold War.
They lost because they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty, the freedom to surprise, to make mistakes, to invent, to build.
As it turns out, you can’t mandate innovation or creativity, just as you can’t force people what to think, what to feel, or what to believe. And we believe those things are certainly connected.
And unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.
I look to Brussels, where EU commiss- — commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be, quote, “hateful content.”
Or to this very country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of, quote, “combating misogyny on the Internet, a day of action.”
I look to Sweden, where, two weeks ago, the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder. And as the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant — and I’m quoting — “a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.
And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Vance’s speech was not greeted with much enthusiasm among the Eurocrats in attendance. The Munich Security Conference was supposed to be an extended Two Minutes Hate against Russia and Vladimir Putin. Vice President Vance suggested that many so-called democracies in NATO and the European Union ought to reexamine their own commitments to liberty on the home front instead. Continue reading “The Graham Linehan arrest: Was JD Vance right about Europe? Is Keir Starmer England’s Putin?”
This is a story of anti-immigrant backlash involving the USA and Mexico. But this is not the story you’re used to hearing.
In Mexico at the moment, there is a ¡Fuera gringos! movement. (But this movement is not limited to Mexico. I have also seen manifestations of it throughout Latin America in recent months.)
The translation is: “Gringos, get out!” A gringo, in Spanish, is a (usually) light-skinned person from the United States.
So a more complete, if awkward, translation would be, “Light-skinned Americans, get out!”
Or maybe: “Yankee, go home!” or (the more racially charged version) “Whitey, go home!”
Whatever the translation (there is no concise, universally agreed English translation of “gringo”), the message here is not subtle.
I belong to a gym in suburban Cincinnati. Over this past summer, the gym ran a 3-month membership special for college students. It was a good deal, apparently. My gym was overrun with baby-faced, tattooed moppets from June through August.
I have nothing against our youngest generation of adults. Except for one thing: they all become catatonic when staring at their cell phone screens.
I have nothing against cell phones, either. I carry one with me just about everywhere I go.
But most of the time, it’s in my pocket.
Not the Gen Zs, however. Everyone born after 1995 seems unable to function unless the cell phone is constantly in hand. Sometimes they appear to be texting. Most of the time, though, they are simply scrolling through the screen. (Waiting for a text, perhaps?)
But what does an old man like me care about such things? The problem is that in a gym, Gen Zs take twice as long as everyone else, because they park themselves on exercise machines, immerse themselves in their phones, and tune out the rest of the world.
Absorbed in his cell phone, a Gen Z zones out while seated on an exercise machine, thereby inconveniencing everyone else
I will also note that Gen Z males are worse about this than Gen Z females. (I suspect that these young guys are looking at young women on social media, or desperately hoping that a young woman will text them.) Continue reading “A Zoomer moment at my gym”
Throughout the world, people who make Internet inquiries about Kuwa6226 meet violent deaths.
In online forums and chatrooms, people are warned not to mention the mysterious entity.
But who, or what, is Kuwa6226? A supernatural force? A cult? A global conspiracy?
Most people say that it’s better not to ask…and Kuwa6226’s reign of terror goes unchallenged.
***
Then two unlikely sleuths, from opposite sides of the world, unite.
Minoru Watase is a corporate IT employee in Japan. Julie Lawrence is a college student in the American Pacific Northwest.
Julie and Minoru have each lost a friend to Kuwa6226. Together, they are determined to discover Kuwa6226’s true identity and eliminate the menace.
Their search will take them from the streets of Tokyo to an American college town in Washington State. When they finally come face-to-face with Kuwa6226, Julie and Minoru will be unprepared for the revelation…and the ruthlessness of their adversary!
Kuwa 6226 is a horror-mystery with endless twists and turns!
How I wrote a horror novel called Revolutionary Ghosts
Or…
Can an ordinary teenager defeat the Headless Horseman, and a host of other vengeful spirits from America’s revolutionary past?
The big idea
I love history, and I love supernatural horror tales.“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was therefore always one of my favorite short stories. This classic tale by Washington Irving describes how a Hessian artillery officer terrorized the young American republic several decades after his death.
The Hessian was decapitated by a Continental Army cannonball at the Battle of White Plains, New York, on October 28, 1776. According to some historical accounts, a Hessian artillery officer really did meet such an end at the Battle of White Plains. I’ve read several books about warfare in the 1700s and through the Age of Napoleon. Armies in those days obviously did not have access to machine guns, flamethrowers, and the like. But those 18th-century cannons could inflict some horrific forms of death, decapitation among them.
I was first exposed to the “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” via the 1949 Disney film of the same name. The Disney adaptation was already close to 30 years old, but still popular, when I saw it as a kid sometime during the 1970s.
Headless Horsemen from around the world
While doing a bit of research for Revolutionary Ghosts, I discovered that the Headless Horseman is a folklore motif that reappears in various cultures throughout the world.
In Irish folklore, the dullahan or dulachán (“dark man”) is a headless, demonic fairy that rides a horse through the countryside at night. The dullahan carries his head under his arm. When the dullahan stops riding, someone dies.
Scottish folklore includes a tale about a headless horseman named Ewen. Ewen wasbeheaded when he lost a clan battle at Glen Cainnir on the Isle of Mull. His death prevented him from becoming a chieftain. He roams the hills at night, seeking to reclaim his right to rule.
Finally, in English folklore, there is the 14th century epic poem, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. After Gawain kills the green knight in living form (by beheading him) the knight lifts his head, rides off, and challenges Gawain to a rematch the following year.
But Revolutionary Ghosts is focused on the Headless Horseman of American lore: the headless horseman who chased Ichabod Crane through the New York countryside in the mid-1790s.
The Headless Horseman isn’t the only historical spirit to stir up trouble in the novel. John André, the executed British spy, makes an appearance, too. (John André was a real historical figure.)
I also created the character of Marie Trumbull, a Loyalist whom the Continental Army sentenced to death for betraying her country’s secrets to the British. But Marie managed to slit her own throat while still in her cell, thereby cheating the hangman. Marie Trumbull was a dark-haired beauty in life. In death, she appears as a desiccated, reanimated corpse. She carries the blade that she used to take her own life, all those years ago.
Oh, and Revolutionary Ghosts also has an army of spectral Hessian soldiers. I had a lot of fun with them!
The Spirit of ’76
Most of the novel is set in the summer of 1976. An Ohio teenager, Steve Wagner, begins to sense that something strange is going on near his home. There are slime-covered hoofprints in the grass. There are unusual sounds on the road at night. People are disappearing.
Steve gradually comes to an awareness of what is going on….But can he convince anyone else, and stop the Headless Horseman, before it’s too late?
I decided to set the novel in 1976 for a number of reasons. First of all, this was the year of the American Bicentennial. The “Spirit of ’76 was everywhere in 1976. That created an obvious tie-in with the American Revolution.
Nineteen seventy-six was also a year in which Vietnam, Watergate, and the turmoil of the 1960s were all recent memories. The mid-1970s were a time of national anxiety and pessimism (kind of like now). The economy was not good. This was the era of energy crises and stagflation.
Reading the reader reviews of Revolutionary Ghosts, I am flattered to get appreciative remarks from people who were themselves about the same age as the main character in 1976:
“…I am 62 years old now and 1976 being the year I graduated high school, I remember it pretty well. Everything the main character mentions (except the ghostly stuff), I lived through and remember. So that was an added bonus for me.”
“I’m 2 years younger than the main character so I could really relate to almost every thing about him.”
I’m actually a bit younger than the main character. In 1976 I was eight years old. But as regular readers of this blog will know, I’m nostalgic by nature. I haven’t forgotten the 1970s or the 1980s, because I still spend a lot of time in those decades.
If you like the 1970s, you’ll find plenty of nostalgic nuggets in Revolutionary Ghosts, like Bicentennial Quarters, and the McDonald’s Arctic Orange Shakes of 1976.
***
Also, there’s something spooky about the past, just because it is the past. As L.P. Hartley said, “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
For me, 1976 is a year I can clearly remember. And yet—it is shrouded in a certain haziness. There wasn’t nearly as much technology. Many aspects of daily life were more “primitive” then.
It isn’t at all difficult to believe that during that long-ago summer, the Headless Horseman might have come back from the dead to terrorize the American heartland…
