All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

Wax on, wax off.

Welp.  My commitment to giving up candy is coming along swimmingly.

I’m willing to bet a lot of young people today wouldn’t even know what wax lips are.  (They were considered vintage candy when *I* was a kid in the 1980’s.)  Hell, I’m willing to bet a lot of young people wouldn’t get the “Karate Kid” (1984) reference in the headline.

To be honest, the appeal of this candy kinda hasn’t aged well?  I’d swap them out for Nerds or Pop Rocks any day of the week.



“Books were the immortal part of a man …”

Source: The Heinlein Society on Facebook

“The Ossuary” from “Basel’s Dance of Death,” Matthäus Merian, 17th Century

“You little prig.”

I’m gonna have to remember that one.

Source: Read More Books on Facebook

You don’t need to laugh. Most people don’t like my puns very March.

I’d have gotten up earlier this morning if I were more of a responsible adult.  I’d also get more done today, I’d stop eating sugary cereal and I’d feed my mind tonight with something other than cheesy horror movies.

But you know what they say — “Beware the I’d’s of March.”  So I am at least a good Roman.


https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1855-0512-40

“Winter Landcape with a View of the Amstel River and Amsterdam,” Jacob Ruysdael, 1660

(Let’s set aside the pedantree.)

A few of you dendrological-type people might notice that there are actually two trees in this picture.  (People on Facebook have pointed out that the one on the left looks like a maple or Bradford pear, while the one on the right is a crape myrtle.)  So the meme is based on a falsehood.

But I wouldn’t have known.  And the point remains important anyway.



Source: Other Perspectives on Facebook

“The Sin (Woman with Red Hair and Green Eyes),” Edvard Munch, 1902

Lithograph printed in yellow, red and green.

Hershberger Road, Roanoke, Virginia, March 2025

I took this shot because it shows how mountains encircle Roanoke.  (From this one particular place on Hershberger Road, you can see them in the distance in the west, north and east.)

For newcomers hailing from a very flat place like Long Island, this can actually mess with your sense of direction — because your mind might unconsciously use the nearest mountain as a frame of reference.  (It should be noted here, however, that I have always had a lousy sense of direction.  I was legendary in New York for easily becoming lost.)



“Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem,” Rembrandt, 1630

Oil on panel.