A poem for cherishing that which passes but remains — And so it was finally summer, And the verdant spring was over, And the promise of growing gardens Gave us comfortable cover to hover About our backyard plant life, In need of sun and water. The green hose and the sprayer In the hands of human players Made harvesting rainfall easy, Made garden-growing pleasing, Turned time with friends and family Into outdoor summer memories, Helped shield from what came later: The slow march of the reaper Overtaking youthful pleasures, bringing fall to distant summers.

Satire? Yes, for the moment — but that could change — ***** BULLETIN: BILL CLINTON ELECTED SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE ***** WASHINGTON — In a strange turn of events at the Capitol late Friday morning, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) jokingly cast his ballot for former President Bill Clinton — only to have the joke backfire when an unlikely series of events…

Modern life got you down? Let Bing, Bob or Cher cheer you up! — They don’t make Christmas specials like they used to. Depending on your point of view, that may or may not be a good thing, but if you find yourself longing for the days of Christmas specials from the likes of Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Cher, and other mid- to late-20th-century…

Like the Doobie Brothers sang all those years ago, it’s time for ‘Takin’ It to the Streets’ — or directly to Twitter users, to be precise — When Twitter was launched on July 15, 2006 — more than 16 years ago — there wasn’t nearly as much fanfare as there was in late October of 2022, when multi-billionaire Elon Musk finally assumed control of the social media platform via a $44 billion buyout after months of legal…

Walking the path toward a greater understanding of the mystery — Author’s note: I originally wrote this story for a quarterly writing contest at WritersWeekly.com, but alas, it did not win. The contest gives entrants a short prompt, and the imagination takes it from there. If you are unfamiliar with the site, check it out and read some of the stories…

Websites give voters a detailed look at how candidates present themselves; poll trends help inform election predictions — Another November of an even-numbered year is fast-approaching, and that can mean only one thing: general elections are just around the corner. In the case of 2022, that means that while President Joseph R. Biden is not on the ballot, at least some of those voting in these midterm elections…

Most state governments publish results online as they are tallied — If you’re the type of political junkie who anticipates Election Night the way a football fan looks forward to the Super Bowl, then you may already know that most if not all U.S. states post real-time Election Night results on state-operated web pages. And for those of you who didn’t…

Did the phone hear ’gum’ when you said ‘dumb’? No problem! — Have you ever dictated text into your mobile phone only to see that what appeared on the screen did not accurately reflect what you just said? Of course you have. What you see — Cheese going to be leaving late. What you said — She’s going to be leaving late. …

Reflections on shows gone by make the past come alive again — “There is a road, no simple highway …” So goes a lyric to Ripple, a popular song from the Grateful Dead’s 1970 LP American Beauty. For both the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company, one of its many musical offshoots, the long, strange trip through the late 20th and early…