I found this on the Facebook wall of Brandon Shiflett (and shared it with his permission). It’s true for just about any creative right about now.
Brandon writes: “Being an artist in 2025 be like”
I found this on the Facebook wall of Brandon Shiflett (and shared it with his permission). It’s true for just about any creative right about now.
Brandon writes: “Being an artist in 2025 be like”
If I know a few of you, you’ll need to watch those shenanigans.
Photo credit: Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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.
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.

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
I was at first taken aback by my need to seek (sigh) bifocals. But that feeling was mitigated entirely by the return of … the world!! It is rendered in such exquisite detail — even things that are far away!! (I had no idea that I needed glasses so badly.)
Roanoke’s sweeping wooded vistas are once again completely novel to me. It’s beauty times two for a transplanted New Yorker. 🙂
Went looking for info on “A Bridge Too Far;” I somehow arrived at info for “Bridgerton,” and those are two very different viewing experiences.
Check out these awesome Christmas presents I received from some totally cool Roanoke friends — bookstands for displaying some of the publications that have featured my poems. 🙂
Also among the Yuletide goodies were an Irish coin and a piece of Connemara marble — ideal for setting up beside my copy of The Galway Review 12.