News of my World
Books: “Bowling for Communism” in Leipzig
Leipzig was among the East German cities to be visited in 1989 during my August working holiday in the GDR, but the group excursion...
Archipelago Travels
Technically Challenged
EXILE ON SPRING STREET: In defense of godlessness in everyday life
After much thought, I've decided to retire the "On the Avenues" identifier after all. As we enter 2022, OTA becomes "Exile on Spring Street."
Until...
Miscellany
“Almost half of all car trips in U.S. cities are three...
Just following up on that point I was making about the way an actual New Albany bicycling network inside the beltway, the rudiments of...
Most popular
Quadrophenia: “Ain’t it funny how we all seem to look the same?”
Emerging from the shadows of The Dolphin pub in Plymouth’s Barbican, we began walking toward the stunningly perfect natural harbor, the open sea a...
40 Years in Beer, Part Eighteen: In Ostrava, the beer of the people at...
Previously: 40 Years in Beer, Part Seventeen: Uncle V’s beery introduction to Bohemia (June 1989).
In 1989 the city of Ostrava (population 330,000) was communist...
40 Years in Beer, Part Twenty-Five: The end of the beginning (1989-1990)
Previously: 40 Years in Beer, Part Twenty-Four: That infamous Madrid episode, and a necessary curtailment.
According to conventional sources of Internet wisdom, a Europhile is...
Hunter S. Thompson eulogizes Richard M. Nixon (1994): “He Was a Crook.”
Arguably, the finest political obituary in American history. A Twitter friend linked to it recently, remarking that he rereads the piece every few months....
Diary
Diary for 24 July 2021: Oversight of government entities? By the News and Tribune?
Let's begin by defining our terms for those just tuning in.
The News and Tribune (N&T) is a six-day (Monday through Saturday) daily newspaper serving...
Diary for 15 July 2021: Once there was a bridge
Roger, describe your relationship with City Hall in one photo or less. pic.twitter.com/7OZNAjBVAw
— Roger A. Baylor (@newalbanian) March 11, 2021
Twitter games amuse me at...
Make your own fun, but I will not carry a gun
I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got thrown into this war I had a clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns....
Diary for 19 September 2021: Your shrinking attention spans annoy me
If there is any one common denominator to help explain the ever bottoming nadir of daily life in the industrialized (and desperately sick) world,...
Diary: “The moral and aesthetic nightmare of Christmas,” by the late, great Christopher Hitchens
In 2021, I pleased the local powers-that-be by allowing the NA Confidential blog to run its course, and by doing so, liberated myself from...
Recipes for Chaos
Roger’s year in books and reading, 2021
When it comes to books, I’ve never seriously attempted to rank a year’s reading in terms of "best of" or the like. To be...