"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

A think tank recently quizzed 1700 seventeen-year-olds on basic historical information.  You can probably guess the outcome. 
According to the results, only “43% knew the Civil War was fought between 1850 and 1900.”
Don’t bother using the term “Orwellian” around young adults these days.  Only “52% could identify the theme of 1984.“ 
And it was multiple [...]

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My current wish list.

I wish “Fast Checkout” meant “Fast Checkout.
I wish I wouldn’t get blamed for others’ mistakes.
I wish all of the self-help material I’ve read actually helped.
I wish I could forget.
I wish I could remember.
I wish I had a good idea.
I wish I had as much money as the people who say “Money isn’t everything.”

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As a guitarist I make a fantastic drummer.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I put down my drumsticks and picked up a six-string, beginning a quest to learn how to play the guitar. I’m attempting to teach myself to play, just as I did with the drums, but this time I’m following a lesson book.
Unlike with drums, however, I’ve quickly [...]

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Another nail in the HD-DVD coffin.

Netflix, the immensely popular online movie rental company announced Monday that they are dumping the HD-DVD format and going strictly with the Blu-ray(tm) format for their high-def offerings. 
Blockbuster(tm) made the same announcement last year, which means the two major players in movie rentals have now turned their back on the HD-DVD format. 
I’m still [...]

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Want to feel old?

I just saw that Michael Jackson’s album Thriller is twenty-five years old this year.  Twenty-five!
Say what you want about the pasty-faced half-nosed child-fondler, but back in the day that boy could make some serious hits.  In a time when artists are lucky if they get two good singles from an album it’s amazing to look [...]

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I bet they did.

Friday during lunch I was watching another morbidly fascinating installment of WCHS TV’s “Behind the Kitchen Door,” a weekly feature in which the host, Patrick McMurtry, describes in great detail all of the health violations discovered in area restaurants.  Yum yum.
 In this episode, McMurtry delivered one of the greatest lines in local television broadcast history. [...]

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Wanted: Muse. Experience preferred but not necessary.

I’ve always been somewhat of a creative type.  At least I’ve always wanted to be.  As with everything else in my life, my goals have more often than not exceeded my abilities, but I’ve always yearned to create.
My former career depended on it.  My current career — not so much.
So I’ve been in a major [...]

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Oops.

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