A trove of excellent portfolio examples of top columnists worldwide with op-eds on variious issues ranging from politics to entertainment!

Columnist Portfolio Examples

A trove of excellent portfolio examples of top columnists worldwide with op-eds on various issues ranging from politics to entertainment!

There are four uncapped players in Rob Page's Cymru squad for the upcoming UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers against Croatia and Latvia, and the manager explained at his squad announcement on Tuesday how excited he is by the potential in his new-look squad.…

New Cymru faces for a new EURO campaign

Rob Page will announce his Cymru squad on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the opening two UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers against Croatia (Saturday 25 March) in Split and Latvia (Tuesday 28 March) at the Cardiff City Stadium. The announcement will mark the…

A new Cymru era as EURO 2024 qualifying begins

Midfielder Jonny Williams is the latest member of the Cymru squad to confirm his retirement from the international game after three major tournaments and 33 appearances for his country. Williams, who will turn 30 in October, confirmed his decision…

Joniesta departs as a Red Wall favourite

Cymru defender Chris Gunter has announced his retirement from international football but the cult hero of the Red Wall will never be forgotten for what he delivered and achieved while representing his country on 109 occasions. One of the heroes of…

Cult hero Gunter calls time on Cymru

Striker Helen Ward, Cymru's all-time leading goalscorer, has announced her retirement from the international game having scored an incredible 44 goals in 105 appearances. Ward will turn 37 next month and has been a huge source of inspiration to the…

Record-breaker Ward brings her Cymru story to an end

This weekend the remaining four teams will battle it out for a place in the 134th JD Welsh Cup Final and with it move a step closer to claiming the famous old trophy that was first competed for back in 1878 when Wrexham defeated the Druids. Since…

JD Welsh Cup - The legends who lifted the trophy

The JD Welsh Cup takes centre stage once again this weekend as four clubs aim to reach the 134th final. The semi-final action begins on Friday night when Bala Town take on Connah's Quay Nomads at the Essity Stadium, Flint (7.45pm) before Penybont…

Final four in touching distance of JD Welsh Cup

Cymru manager Gemma Grainger and her squad will return to the familiar surroundings of San Pedro del Pinatar this week as the Spanish town plays host to the 2023 Pinatar Cup with the opening match against the Philippines taking place on Wednesday, 15…

Gemma Grainger excited for Pinatar Cup challenge

Joe Allen has called time on his international career having made 74 Cymru appearances since his senior debut as a teenager back in May 2009. Joe Allen 74 caps2 goals3 major tournaments #DiolchJoe During the course of his 14-year international…

The pride and passion behind Joe Allen's Cymru story

Five clubs from the JD Cymru Premier will focus their attentions on the JD Welsh Cup this weekend and all five managers head into the quarter-finals having already tasted success in the competition during each of their respective playing and…

Past JD Welsh Cup success fuelling hunger for more

It will be a proud moment for Cwmbran Celtic manager James Kinsella when his side take to the field against JD Welsh Cup holders The New Saints on Saturday (2pm) and their achievement of reaching the quarter-final is testament to the progress they…

Cwmbran Celtic a collective force in JD Welsh Cup run

It was 30 years ago that the Nathaniel MG Cup was won for the first time as Afan Lido and their talented squad of local players defeated Caersws 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out at Aberystwyth. David Rees was player-manager of Afan Lido at the time, while…

How local talent helped Afan Lido win the first Nathaniel MG Cup final

Cymru manager Gemma Grainger has targeted a place at UEFA Women's EURO 2025 having agreed a two-year contract extension to lead the national team through the next two qualifying campaigns. “I'm still passionate about our long-term plan and what we…

Ambitious Gemma Grainger targeting Euro qualification

Briton Ferry Llansawel host Buckley Town at the Old Road in the JD Welsh Cup on Saturday (2pm) with General Manager Stuart Williams targeting a place in the quarter-finals while the club also push for promotion to the JD Cymru Premier. Currently…

Briton Ferry Llansawel rising up ahead of JD Welsh Cup test

Gareth Bale's contribution in the colours of Cymru is immeasurable and he will forever be regarded as the greatest-ever by the Red Wall having defined an era of success that delivered appearances at two EURO finals and a long-awaited return to the…

Gareth Bale - The titles and trophies that put Wales on the map

Manager Johnny Haseldin takes his Holywell Town side to Guilsfield in the 4th round of the JD Welsh Cup on Saturday (2pm) with a determination to deliver more special cup memories. “We feel that we can be a good cup team,” said Haseldin to FAW.cymru.…

Johnny Haseldin targets more JD Welsh Cup memories with Holywell Town

Cymru captain Gareth Bale has officially worn the dragon on his shirt for the final time having announced his retirement from professional football. A true Cymru legend, Bale is not only the all-time leading appearance holder and all-time leading…

Gareth Bale - The Cymru legend

Cristiano Ronaldo will play out the final years of his professional footballing career in the footballing backwaters of the Saudi Pro League, having signed a highly-lucrative deal with Al-Nassr. The move completes a year that will only be remembered…

Cristiano Ronaldo retires to the footballing shadows of Saudi Arabia

The creative brilliance of Kevin De Bruyne was conspicuous by its absence at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, but the Manchester City superstar was back to his absolute brilliant best on Thursday as the catalyst in the 3-2 win over Liverpool in the…

Kevin De Bruyne back to his brilliant best in Manchester City blue

The 2022 FIFA World Cup will forever be remembered and defined by Lionel Messi. From the moments of individual brilliance to the iconic trophy-lifting images, the tournament played out like a Hollywood movie for the Argentine genius. Messi cemented…

Lionel Messi the sporting success in FIFA's corporate World Cup

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The “bullshit” problem turns up in code, too Lately I’ve been seeing people using ChatGPT to write code. One guy posted on Twitter about how he used it to make a simple version of Pong “in under 60 seconds”, while another had it write a Python script…

Why ChatGPT Won’t Replace Coders Just Yet

New research suggests Zoom brought not just fatigue — but genuine connection I’m an extrovert, so when COVID hit, I lunged for any form of social connection I could get. That meant: Zoom parties! Back in early 2020, Zoom was blowing up. Quite…

Maybe Zoom Parties Weren’t So Bad

Cultural subjects mocked for being frivolous are often profound and useful Last week, Nathan Heller published a long reported piece in the New Yorker that explored the dramatic decline in students studying the humanities at college.

In Defense of Studying “Basket Weaving” At College

The Jungian symbol of supposedly “liberated” work Back during the dot-com boom of the late 90s, if you visited one of the then-hot startups in San Francisco — or other major US cities like New York — there was an emerging workplace aesthetic. Ties…

The Rise and Fall of the Dot-Com Foosball Table

The “Ebbinghaus curve of forgetting” tells us to use it or lose it When I was first teaching myself computer programming, I’d often set aside a big chunk of time on the weekend to work on tutorials. By the end of a couple of hours, I always felt like…

Why You Need To Code Every Day When You’re Learning To Program

There’s no magic bullet. It’s mostly about sheer, dogged persistence “How do you research a subject?” I got asked this last week, while being interviewed by some college students. We were chatting about energy and technology, but they were also…

How I Research A New Subject

Need to quickly edit pictures and design posters? These work great Every so often I need to do a bit of lightweight photo editing and design. Sometimes it’s for journalism; I’ll do a blog post and want to create some text cards for it. Other times…

My Three Favorite Alternatives to Photoshop and InDesign

And how streaming is changing it again Pop songs are getting shorter. I’ve been reading some interesting stories lately pointing out how, over the last decade or so, songs have dwindled in length: “From 2013 to 2018,” as QZ reported, “the average…

How the Phonograph Created the 3-Minute Pop Song

History has not been kind to AI pioneers who overpromise and underdeliver Is winter coming? I speak of an “AI winter”, of course. They’re part of the boom-bust cycle that we’ve seen in AI history. During an AI boom, computer scientists and firms…

The Risk of a New AI Winter

Workplace phone-calls used to have rigid, unforgiving specs. The Internet made them weirder I’ve stopped calling people on the phone. I realized this the other day while inspecting my mobile-phone bill. Apparently I made only 8 minutes worth of phone…

The Strange Fate of the Business Phone Call

What ChatGPT has in common with magazine copy-editing I once knew a copy editor who read all her stories backwards. She said it forced her to slow down, so she’d catch more mistakes. Cool technique, eh? Let’s put a pin in that for now. I’ll come back…

AI-Generated Bullshit Is A Challenge To Our “Vigilance”

RSS brings me weirder and deeper stuff than I encounter on social media I’ve written a bunch about “rewilding your attention” — or, spending more time reading and viewing culture that isn’t going viral on social-media feeds. Algorithmically-sorted…

How I Use RSS To “Rewild” My Attention

The “Bureau of Linguistic Reality” is coining them As any psychologist will tell you, a key part of grappling with your emotions is naming them. So back in 2007 I was particularly struck when I learned of the word “solastalgia”. It was a neologism…

To Talk About the Anthropocene, We Need New Words

It’s making me sound furious. All the time. What the heck is going on with the iPhone these days? For years, I’ve used voice dictation to compose most text on my phone. Now, I don’t use it to write journalism or formal prose. But emails, messaging,…

Why Is My iPhone Suddenly Ending My Sentences With A Period?!

Can’t face work? Then cultivate some side projects — and channel your work-avoidance into fun opportunities to learn I’m a writer, so I procrastinate. It’s almost syllogistic, right? I am a writer; all writers procrastinate; therefore, I…

How To Practice “Productive Procrastination”

In a flash, a nuclear warhead unleashes the destructive power of hundreds of kilotons of TNT. The resulting inferno, and the blast wave that follows, instantly kill people directly in their path. But a new study finds that some people two to seven…

You Might Survive a Nuclear Blast—if You Have the Right Shelter

Five years ago, the city of Queens, New York, announced that it would be putting bike lanes onto a stretch of Skillman Ave—and removing 116 parking spots. Cyclists loved the plan, but local business owners went ballistic. Taking out those parking…

The Battle Over Bike Lanes Needs a Mindset Shift

Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I…

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok

Five lessons from watching a game creator at work Would you be able to invent the next Wordle? David Shariatmadar tried! And learned some fascinating stuff along the way. Shariatmadari is a writer for The Guardian, and he set himself the task of…

Trying to Design the Next Wordle

Y’all can subscribe to get “the opposite of doomscrolling” in your inbox — the best of the Internet, every week Hello, Medium folks! News from me: I’m moving my weekly “Linkfest” to a newsletter, and invite you all to subscribe with this link if…

My “Linkfest” Is Now A Newsletter

Next Article » « Back to Home Australia’s National Broadband Network is in trouble, shedding 500 staff to cut costs and with declining subscriber numbers as telcos tout rival 5G wireless broadband services. For years, the differences between the NBN…

How not to build a national broadband network

We’ve heard much in the past couple of years about the plans of the public cloud "hyperscalers" – Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft – which all of a sudden see Aotearoa as a prime location for building datacentres. Amazon Web Services (AWS),…

How we can make the most of the public cloud splurge

Next Article » « Back to Home What a week it was for the tech community. It started with many of them fearing they may not be able to make this week’s payroll after the US Government moved to freeze the assets of the Silicon Valley Bank, a mid-sized…

Griffin on Tech: Bailouts and bans - how tech and politics have become increasingly entangled

I was among those breathing a sigh of relief on Monday when the US government decided to cover depositors with uninsured cash held at the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). As a contractor for an American tech company that banked with SVB, the prospect of my…

SVB failure: we can bank on more trouble to come

It’s been a volatile time for entrepreneurs and investors in the Web3 space, which spans everything from decentralised finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrencies, to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and distributed autonomous organisations (DAOs). The situation…

Web3NZ - the new home for all things Web3 in Aotearoa

Next Article » « Back to Home The tech layoffs in the US we’ve read so much about in the last six months are starting to hit our own big tech companies. Sharesies said last month it would shed staff as it undertook a restructure and Xero announced…

Griffin on Tech: As tech tigthen tighten their belts, we should to double down on digital skills

Netflix became a global streaming goliath on the back of its generous password-sharing policy. OPINION: It’s time to check out the streaming competition now that Netflix has cut one of its best features. By Peter Griffin. Netflix, the country’s most…

Opinion: That’s a pass - why Netflix has lost my streaming dollar

Whether it is put down to supply chain disruption, labour shortages or the catch-all excuse of “inflation”, every company seems to be putting its prices up. But pricing guru Dr Maciej Kraus, who has advised numerous multinationals on their pricing…

Software start-ups – don’t be scared to raise prices

As a nation we are more immersed in the online world than eve and overwhelmingly see the internet as a force for good. But as InternetNZ’s latest Internet Insights Report reveals, our views on the internet and even our ability to access it, are…

The internet in 2023: We are highly connected, but significant disparities remain

Next Article » « Back to Home I guess it had to happen. China has begun cracking down on start-ups offering users running virtual private networks access to OpenAI’s vastly popular ChatGPT generative AI service. ChatGPT isn’t officially available in…

Griffin on Tech: Censorship, China’s ChatGPT clones and banning TikTok

Next Article » « Back to Home Research from IT services company Datacom shows that 40% of New Zealanders have considered studying for a career in tech. But the high level of interest hasn’t equated to tertiary study, with just 5% of students enrolled…

High interest in tech at school but low tertiary uptake - Datacom

We're yet to learn the exact bill for rebuilding the infrastructure, businesses and homes smashed by Cyclone Gabrielle.It could be as expensive as the $13 billion required to get Christchurch back on its feet after the earthquakes. Whatever it is, we…

Rebuild yes, but with a side of innovation, too

Waihōpai, Invercargill will become a hub of coding conversation later in the year as the Kiwi PyCon, the national conference dedicated to the Python programming language takes place. The New Zealand Python User Group (NZPUG), which is organising Kiwi…

Coding summit to bring Python programmers to the deep south

Next Article » « Back to Home Meta chose New Zealand and Australia to this week roll out its new verification system across Facebook and Instagram, following Twitter’s move to introduce paid-for verification. My initial reaction to Meta’s move was…

Griffin on Tech: Becoming second-class social media citizens

Next Article » « Back to Home If you suffer a serious data breach or cyberattack, how you communicate with key stakeholders who are affected can make or break your reputation. That’s why CERT NZ, the government’s Computer Emergency Response…

How to talk your way out of a cybersecurity crisis

An excellent report came out earlier this month, the first of its kind to look in-depth at Māori-owned and operated tech businesses.Published by consulting firm Paua Interface, Toi Hangarau identified 72 tech companies, with at least one owner…

Iwi need to ‘push the waka out’ on tech investment

Next Article » « Back to Home Telecoms provider 2Degrees is launching its Starlink Business satellite broadband offering early with interest in satellite skyrocketing as a result of the communications outages suffered during last week’s flood…

2degrees bringing forward Starlink Business launch as interest in satellite surges

What’s the point of having a ‘living will’ if doctors ignore it? That’s the question driving a new campaign for a law change. By Peter Griffin. Draining and surreal. That’s how Louise Duffy describes See all offers

Barbie Duffy had planned her own death. So why did doctors ignore her wishes?

This is an opinion column. How do you know when someone’s lying to you? You start by looking ‘em in the eye. How do you show you’re taking someone seriously? You look them in the eye. It’s the least you can do. How do you refuse to grant parole to a…

Archibald: Even the dead can’t get paroled from Alabama prisons. It’s time to look ‘em in the eye.

This is an opinion column. More than half the adults in America read on a sixth grade level or below, according to the National Literacy Institute. That means they’re not equipped to enjoy “The Call of the Wild,” by Jack London, or “Holes,” by Louis…

Archibald: Americans get screwed because they can’t read

This is an opinion column. Get John Archibald’s newsletter: Enter your email to subscribe to John’s weekly newsletter: I get chain letters and group emails in my inbox all the time, lamenting what society has become. Maybe it’s my age, or simply…

Archibald: America, then vs. now

This is an opinion column. It’s the ‘9s that will get you. Always the ‘9s. I remember my 29th birthday, but not my 30th. It was the one they said to hold onto, but the first to remind me it’s slipping away. But dang, that was half a lifetime ago.…

Archibald: Life’s too short to be mad all the time

This is an opinion column. Selma has become a symbol, a shrine. It’s a sort of Star of Bethlehem to those who would pay homage to sacrifice, and to freedom, to the power of courage and perseverance and hope for equality.. Celebrities and politicians…

Archibald: Selma is more than a symbol, it’s a warning

This is an opinion column. Alabama Congressman Barry Moore has ‘em right where he wants them. In his sights. And they can’t even see the red dot on their foreheads. On all our foreheads, really. He’s in the Washington Post, and the New York Daily…

Archibald: Outmaneuvered by Barry Moore as AR-15 bill goes click, click, click

A 34-year-old Jefferson County man pulled over for speeding last year has sued the tiny town of Brookside and several of its former police officers for cruel treatment, denying him a phone call, and tacking multiple charges onto his record without…

Brookside sued again: Speeder claims he was left naked in cold jail, hit with surprise charges

This is an opinion column. One inmate was baked. As if in an oven. Tommy Lee Rutledge’s body temperature was 109 degrees when he was found, on Pearl Harbor Day in 2020, in a scorching mental health unit at the Donaldson Correctional Facility outside…

Archibald: Alabama torturing these inmates should shock us (and why it doesn’t)

This is an opinion column. You can call this a hot take. But it’s a simmering hot take that bubbled through the college bowl season and erupted during the Super Bowl, the most joyous football day in the world. Wait wait. On further review we find…

Archibald: Referees are killing football

This is an opinion column. John Cooper can cut deals that cost you – the people of Alabama – billions of dollars. Literally billions, with a “B.” As in baloney. Or balderdash. Or boondoggle. John Cooper runs a state agency, the Alabama Department of…

Archibald: The Alabama officials who want you ignorant and in the dark

This is an opinion column. The words on the warrant still seem surreal: YOU ARE THEREFORE ORDERED to arrest the person named or described above and bring that person before a judge or magistrate of this court to answer the charges… But it’s real. The…

Archibald: When jail is just another a late fee

This is an opinion column. I had this Bible Belt thing all wrong. I used to think it was just a swath of Southern land where churches outnumbered liquor stores, where people read that Book and sought, in public or on their better days, at least, to…

Archibald: Time to call BS on the ‘Bible Belt’

This is an opinion column. Leola Harris is 71 years old, and has spent more than a quarter of that in Alabama’s Tutwiler Prison. She’s in a wheelchair now, dependent on dialysis, with end stage renal disease and diabetes, among other things. Harris…

Archibald: Alabama gives 6 minutes to consider life, death and freedom

This is an opinion column. One thing is true, and incontrovertible. People hide stuff for a reason. Because they’re embarrassed, maybe, or guilty. Because they are skittish, or shy, or perhaps nefarious, or secretive. Because they hold on to a…

Archibald: Alabama prison system makes it harder to count its dead

This is an opinion column. Breathe, Alabama. A nice, deep, post-holiday, new-year breath. Deeply now … Whoa. Maybe not that deep. Not if you’re anywhere near Moody. Not in Birmingham, if the wind happens to blow in a westerly way. Not if you’re…

Archibald: ADEM knew years ago Moody landfill was a threat

It was a little more than a year ago that Ramon Perez stood in an interminable line outside the town hall in Brookside, Ala., surrounded by men and women who swore they did not belong there, that they had been done wrong by police. Perez came to…

Time passes, but the sting of a Brookside arrest endures

This is an opinion column, and dribbles into satire. But it is based in fact. On a lovely plot of county-owned land in the adorable village of Wetumpka, an aging lady was spotted one morning, sometime after 8, skulking about a grassy knoll, as only a…

Archibald: Cat food cartel busted in Bama

This is an opinion column. Sometimes it’s hard to know who, or what, the Alabama Public Service Commission worships most. I’m kidding. It’s not that hard. But they try real hard to throw us off. Last week, for instance, the PSC started as always it…

Archibald: Oh Lord, tell us who the Alabama PSC worships most

This is an opinion column. The world went nuts over news last week that Martha Menefield, a mild-mannered 82-year-old retired caregiver, was handcuffed and hauled off to jail by Valley, Ala., police after she failed to pay a $77 bill to her city’s…

Archibald: If you’re mad at Valley police, why aren’t you mad all the time?

This journalism thing has been a long, strange trip. When I first started reporting in the real world – the same year as the Chernobyl disaster and the Challenger explosion and the debut of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” – some crazy stuff happened. Every…

Introducing John Archibald’s new weekly newsletter

Today, on the day after, the sun rose. The birds chirped. And so I feel like a kid again!
I’m a kid in my almost totally white suburban small hometown. Dad went to work every day, Mom stayed home and kept having kids. In the few hours a week she had…

Election results: I’m a kid again

The man turned 90 this week.
THE man. Chuck Berry. Maybelline. Johnny Be Good. Roll Over Beethoven.
RocknRoll icon Chuck Berry, the very first man inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, turned 90 years old without much fanfare, other than to…

Chuck Berry is The Man

It’s only been a couple of weeks since this one story was all anyone was talking about. Of course, a lot of things have happened since then. In this 24-hour news cycle we live in, breaking news sometimes lasts less than 24 hours in our consciousness,…

Stanford Rape: She won’t forget after just three months

One of the best Halloween nights of my life was also absolutely the worst.
I’ve always loved Halloween. Growing up in the Northeast, the seasonal changes meant any costume was probably not going to keep you warm enough. Entire neighborhoods were…

Haunted: Halloween with friends

Last week, I took a stand, for what I believe in. I took down one flag, and put up another. I was trying to pledge my allegiance — to a team.
And in doing so, I was reminded of the time my sons saved my life.
Let me explain. I fly flags — not just…

Baseball playoffs: Pick a flag, pick a team

I can still hear it …
It was a tight game, with a lot on the line. And they came at him.
Maybe they just picked that play, or maybe they decided to test the kid who had sat out more than half of last season as a result of a knee injury.
Either way,…

Tough Break

The quintessential American family — the Cleavers from Leave It To Beaver.
Hugh Beaumont and Tony Dow as Ward and Wally Cleaver.
Photo is screen shot from YouTube video.
Kids don’t know everything. Surprise! They have questions. Sometimes, they keep…

Questions: Kids don’t know everything

My teenage sons often point out to me how little I know about their world. Sometimes that makes me smile to myself.
Most of the time, I just laugh in their face.
But I get it. When I was a teenager, I was pretty sure my dad knew NOTHING about my…

Dad I saved the funny lines for you

Photo above: Screen shot from YouTube video of The Who at the Isle of Wight Music Festival, 1970.
Was it last Friday when my bright and precocious five-year-old walked out of his last day of pre-school, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and a paper crown?
He…

Summertime and the living is easy

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Mine was great, and crappy.
My next door neighbors moved out on Friday. Nice couple, kids grown and long-gone. I liked them a lot, but it was a good move for them. They’re going to a smaller place that’s…

Teenage math for Dad: Everything equals fifty-fifty

According to the 31 emails a day I’ve been receiving from ProFlowers, Teleflorist and Shari’s Berries — and the commercials I’ve seen from Kay Jeweler’s, this Sunday is Mother’s Day — in case you hadn’t heard.
By the way, aren’t cards part of the…

Mothers who made a father out of me

Have you ever been on the job and something went well? Come on, it could happen …
No, I mean, where you did something so right that you wish someone would turn around, see what you just did, and cry out, “Hey, nice job! That was really great!”
Or you…

Attaboy Dad you lose two points

On Sunday morning, right after church, a woman I barely know suggested I run naked around my house all week.
This is not the church in the story, it’s the Mission San Diego de Alcala, a nice Catholic church nonetheless.
(Photo via Wikipedia)
We were…

Kid-free for Spring Break: Look out!

Photo above: Kurt Cobain, October 3, 1992 at the Sam Carver Gymnasium,
Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA Photo by ManWithoutTies via Flickr
This week, at a generally raucous but occasionally solemn event in New York, the band Nirvana was…

Kurt Cobain: It hurt more for some

Can’t see the Dodgers — they’re not on. Thanks again, Dodgers.
I can’t stomach the Lakers — I’ve watched, and they’ve barely been on all year. I can’t afford the Kings — everyone is on their bandwagon.
No Dodgers, or Lakers or Kings, oh my!
Thank God…

Saints softball is all about the beer

Above: Don Baylor catching the ceremonial first pitch from Vladimir Guerrero at the Home Opener for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (against the Seattle Seahawks) Tuesday, April 1, 2014, when Baylor broke his leg.
Video is a screen shot from…

Opening Day: beware of the signs

I am competitive by nature. More so than you, I bet.
See what I did there?
I’m competitive. Don’t believe me?
“The Jesus” Quintana, played by John Turturro, in the film, “The Big Lebowski.”
(Photo is screen shot from YouTube clip)
If I’m going to the…

Should I let my kids win?

(Above photo: YouTube screen shot of KTLA broadcast at moment earthquake hit in Hollywood)
There have been times that I started St. Patrick’s Day with a shot.
The original Mike and Molly, the author’s grandparents.
(Photo by Mike Brennan
This time,…

Shamrock aftershocks: Shaking St. Patrick’s Day

My oldest son is legally old enough to drive, but he doesn’t yet, except a little on our block.
My youngest son is more than 18 months away from being able to take his permit test, but he wants a job, now, so he can start saving for his vehicle of…

Car talk: luxury ride or lunar module?

OSCAR RUMBLINGS AND A SHORT LIST OF RANDOM LESSONS
Haven’t watched the Oscars yet … found out I don’t really need to. For one, neither of my unproduced screenplays were nominated, and my unfinished one was completely shut out. Man, it’s hard out here…

Lessons learned: a shorter list

Well, they didn’t have that then, but they did have something else. It’s a thing called “hot licks.” You know, you hear a hot lick and you say to yourself, ‘hey, play that again. Let me look at it. Let me play it. Let me learn it.’ And you learn it,…