Author Archives: smellincoffee

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About smellincoffee

Citizen, librarian, reader with a boundless wonder for the world and a curiosity about all the beings inside it.

To Rescue the American Spirit

Posted on June 6, 2026 by smellincoffee

While I hadn’t planned to read Thedore Roosevelt until I’d finished off Garfield, etc,  the ladyfriend bought this for me and I  found it fairly absorbing – as in hey, why not spend two hours after work each day reading … Continue reading →

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A Radical Exercise in Liberty

Posted on June 5, 2026 by smellincoffee

The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Exercise in Liberty  is a unique work,  as it is a history of how the Declaration came to be – not only politically, but philosophically. It begins as formal history,  recounting the early 1770s … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday + Long and Short Reviews Prompt

Posted on June 2, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is, unique YouTube videos we have seen lately. But first, WWW Wednesday! WWW Wednesday WHAT have you finished reading recently? The Letters of JFK, edited by Martin Sandler. Very nearly finished with Brad … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday

Posted on June 2, 2026 by smellincoffee

“When you talk to [John F. Kennedy] or see him you always have the impression that his big white teeth are ready to bite off a huge hunk of life. There is determination in his green Irish eyes. He has … Continue reading →

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The Lettahs of JFK

Posted on June 1, 2026 by smellincoffee

Having finished listening to George H.W. Bush’s family read his personal letters and diary entries across fifty years in All the Best,  I could not very well refrain from the temptation of reading JFK’s letters.  The Letters of JFK, however, … Continue reading →

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Moviewatch, May 2026!

Posted on June 1, 2026 by smellincoffee

BUCKLE UP! May 2026’s moviewatch is….eclectic. Or, as President Bush might say, eckalectic. “Oh, God, he’s doing presidents again” you say? Yes. Yes, I’m doing presidents. And other stuff! Frost/Nixon, 2008.   Watching this because I’m fully in the presidential … Continue reading →

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May 2026 in Review

Posted on May 30, 2026 by smellincoffee

So ends the merrie month o’ May; the green buds are no longer swelling, but bursting into full flower. Summer is here, what I….lovingly….call the Great Sticky Siege. The outside world is quickly becoming not a place of warmth and … Continue reading →

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All the Best, George

Posted on May 29, 2026 by smellincoffee

. All the Best is a collection of Bush Sr’s letters, diary entries and emails, prefaced by him and read to varying degrees by his family — including “Bar” whose first particular entry is heartbreaking. As a 1990s kid, there … Continue reading →

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Lincoln

Posted on May 27, 2026 by smellincoffee

Gore Vidal’s Lincoln is a fictional rendering of President Lincoln across five years, from his rise to power to his sudden end at an assassin’s hands in 1865.  Unlike the modern film Lincoln, Vidal does not try to give us … Continue reading →

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WWW Wednesday, America @ 250 Edition

Posted on May 27, 2026 by smellincoffee

Today’s Long and Short reviews prompt is: animals we’d like as pets. Ideally I’d one day like to have a more rural home (as in, no neighbors but deer) with chickens and even a horse. WHAT have you finished reading … Continue reading →

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