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.

May 2025 In Review

Posted on June 1, 2025 by smellincoffee

Well, so ends May, an extremely wet month here in Alabama, with most places receiving 10-12 inches of rain — the historic average being about 5 inches. I managed to watch two baseball games and one play (“The Mousetrap”, Agatha … Continue reading →

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Moviewatch, May 2025

Posted on May 31, 2025 by smellincoffee

Party Girl, 1995. Parker Posey is a dance hall fanatic who, upon finding herself financially strapped, decides to become a librarian.   This film is amusing from a librarian POV because she begins working in an early 1990s system that … Continue reading →

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Occupation to vocation

Posted on May 29, 2025 by smellincoffee

For someone my age, I have had surprisingly few jobs: over half my working life has been at the same place! I volunteered in the soundroom at my parent’s church as a teenager, though that doesn’t really count considering the … Continue reading →

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Teaser Tuesday & WWW Wednesday

Posted on May 28, 2025 by smellincoffee

ALTOSTRATUS is a bit of a boring cloud. Sorry if that sounds mean, but its featureless, overcast sky just hangs around, with little to say for itself. The most exciting thing Altostratus ever does is lightly drizzle. (Cloudspotting for Beginners) … Continue reading →

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Original Sin

Posted on May 26, 2025 by smellincoffee

It was fairly obvious to critics of the Biden administration that the president was in cognitive decline and increasingly unfit to hold office, despite the barrage of Sharp as a Tack! statements emanating from DC’s faithful handmaidens, the corporate press. … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Coming to Palestine

Posted on May 24, 2025 by smellincoffee

Given the current horrors going on in Gaza, and that Israel/Palestine is largely a blind spot for me, I figured this was worth a look, especially given that I haven’t read anything on the subject since Peace not Apartheid (2007!) … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, World Affairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

WWW Wednesday

Posted on May 21, 2025 by smellincoffee

WHAT have you finished reading recently? Memories from the Microphone, a history of baseball broadcasting. WHAT are you reading now? I’ve been nibbling at a few books this week, but am most committed to Provoked, a history of DC/NATO vs … Continue reading →

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Audiobook Number Crunching

Posted on May 20, 2025 by smellincoffee

Audiobooks have become a regular part of my reading life in recent years, prompted by one of those free trials that resulted in me discovering how a strong narrator can transform a book. Since then I’ve been and on/off again … Continue reading →

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Top Ten Book Featuring Travel

Posted on May 20, 2025 by smellincoffee

And as usual, by top ten I mean “the first ten that occurred to me”. But first, the customary tease: The U.S. military is also a “self-licking ice cream cone,” as American GIs called it in Vietnam, dedicated to its … Continue reading →

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Memories from the Microphone

Posted on May 19, 2025 by smellincoffee

Memories from the Microphone is a history of baseball broadcasting that begins with primitive radio and follows broadcasting into the maturation of radio and television networks. In this, it’s also a partial history of how radio and television developed as … Continue reading →

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