Category Archives: Uncategorized
Reminder
Gerard died 2 years and 1 week ago tomorrow - Jan 27, 2023; a week from tomorrow (Monday). I don't know Neo's plans for the American Digest site, but I suspect y'all have only about 1 week left to enjoy Gerard's writings as he wrote them.
All good things come to an end ... and the end is near.

Damn! ... I hope he and Ol' Remus got together.
I have a black cat as well - he "helps" me write - and I'm not all that much younger than Gerard was.
Continue reading →Byzantine

Comments And Articles
A question was asked in Comments about how to submit an article for posting. That's the easy part. Send your submission to:
dt@newamericandigest.org
and I'll get it posted.
I have to set up an internal "author" account to give proper credit and WP requires an email to go with it. I'll use the one the article comes from. The email will not be published and the name you use is your choice … be unique with the name though, "Anonymous" may not cut it - lots of people named Anonymous :)
Names need to be unique: if you submit an article as "Name" and an author account is set up under that name (that process is invisible to you), the next Name that comes along will have to use a different name, even if "Name1".
For articles to be posts, I'd want something that doesn't really belong in comments; something worthy of being shared globally with others and not buried in Comments that get lost over time. Anne's piece of yesterday titled "Tomorrow" is a good example. Essay length at most - suitable for a post; something that will inspire others' interest. Really long articles belong on pages, not posts. I'll refine any length limitations as articles are submitted.
If it's a really long comment, often it probably should be considered for a post unless it has specific intent to the post to which it's attached.
Now the hard part ... the commenter also asked about rules and limitations.
To tell the truth, I hadn't really given that any thought until now.
As far as rules? I'd like to say none, but here I go establishing a few ...
I suspect there will need to be guidelines and rules of some sort beyond what I give here eventually. I'll let that go for now and see how things work out. "Experience is the best teacher".
First: If you send it I will assume you intend it to be posted unless you tell me directly otherwise (you can also "talk" to me directly and privately through that address if you need to). This is the internet - posts are forever ...
Not that I expect to use the powers of Administrator but I will reserve the right to be the arbiter of what gets posted if need be.
"Nastiness" and personal attacks will not be posted. I'd like to keep political commentary to a minimum. Just so y'all know my biases, easterners consider me extreme right wing (I worked near DC for a while); here at home, I'm considered right of center. I'm sure that bias will come through but I'd prefer to be neutral here. I deal with that stuff too much - as I suppose you all do as well - and I don't really want to deal with it here. There's a balance needed here though - some political discussions are OK … I'm just not sure what those limits are yet. "Trump is a Nazi" doesn't make the cut - no he's not, but why do you think so? might make the cut. A thoughtful discussion of a policy - pro or con - usually does.
I'll let it be known right now I'm pretty hard-core anti-tranz. The topic doesn't need to come up here - pro or con. Other sites cover it elsewhere if you need the discussion; keep the rhetorical yours and others sex lives someplace else.
Boundaries are flexible for now. If experience indicates limits need to be defined more thoroughly, it will be done. But not until experience forces my hand. Even Gerard had limits ...
This post will eventually turn into a WP page and be given a link on the header so these "rules" remain accessible rather than get buried with time.
Continue reading →Williamsburg
Here’s How To Speak “Engineer”
SpaceX had another spacecraft recovery with their "claw". While the catch of the heavy booster section was successful, the upper section created quite the light show in the sky when it exploded during re-entry:

Or as SpaceX called it, the event was a "rapid unscheduled disassembly".
I love it!
State Of Mind
I feel I should be writing something informative, something interesting, something most every other blog website in the nation is writing about.
I'm tired of commenting on the "news": Same old thing, day after day - the script doesn't change, just the topic of the day.
Or politics: I'm tired of reading about Joe and Friend's antics. They're despicable, corrupt beyond anyone's willingness to believe - and it's not going to change and nothing's going to be done about it.
Or "climate change". Whoo-boy, I could fill pages on that topic. Was once my profession. So I don't speak much of it. Other than I'm of the 3%.
Or "conspiracy theories": A conspiracy theory seems to be the truth let loose 6 months before it's supposed to be.
Entertainment is subjective. What entertains me may not - probably wouldn't - entertain you.
I do have a couple of things I'm working on for later posting ... but I just can't come up with sparkling wit every day ... yet here I sit, holding this digital door open for friends to talk with each other - and I enjoy doing so.
So pictures it is - for the most part; when I don't have words. Photos to inspire or amuse or just fill space. Or maybe suggest a topic for the day's discussions - just like the last two years of Gerard/Neo's site.
Bless both their souls.
Besides, I have >lots< of photos that I can post ... more than I have words.

Moth On Thistle
Fishing
Tunes For Tuesday – Arthur Brown “Fire”
I want to try this out as a regular "feature". I have a very weird span in taste of music; thought I'd share some tunes I enjoy on Tuesdays.
Why Tuesday? "Tunes For Monday" just doesn't have the same ring.
Some you may like, some you may not, some you may not of ever heard of
My first selection was picked for its timely appropriateness.
Not that I have any sympathy for LA - but there's a lot of people there that don't deserve this
... mixed in with way too many of those that voted for it, profited from their vote, and deserve every bit of it.
And I was lying in the grass
By a river
And as I lay, the grass turned to sand
And the river turned to a sea
And suddenly the sea burst into flames
And the sand was burning
And I breathed in
And there was smoke in my lungs
And there was fire in my brain!
And I looked around me
And there were all these shapes being sucked into the flames
And they were rising and trying to escape
And I knew that I had to get out
And I looked above me and I saw a shape
That was smiling down at me and beckoning, saying
"Come on home!"
And I raised myself and I tried to get outta the flames
And I was getting higher and higher and higher and higher
And I reached out towards the shape
And as I reached out the shape shed
And my hands were empty!
And I was falling!
I was falling
Falling
Falling
I was falling into the flames
And I knew that I was gonna burn!
I was gonna burn!
Oh it's so hot in here!
Let me out! please!
You fought hard and you saved and earned
But all of it's going to burn
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you've really been so blind
Now's your time, burn your mind
You're falling far, too far behind
Oh no, oh no, oh no!
You're gonna burn
Fire, to destroy all you've done
Fire, to end all you've become
I'll feel you burn
You've been living like a little girl
In the middle of your little world
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you've really been so blind
Now's your time, burn your mind
You're falling far, too far behind
Fire, I'll take you to burn
Fire, I'll take you to learn
You're gonna burn
You're gonna burn
You're gonna burn, burn, burn, burn,
burn, burn, burn, burn, burn, burn, bu