This post made possible in part by people who provide support for my writing at Patreon. Thank you! On a crisp, bright October day last year, I rolled into Columbus, Ohio, a city I had never previously visited, for three days of glorious research into one of the world’s preeminent…

In the small city of Bremerton, Washington (pop. 44,000), a ferry ride away from Seattle, the shock is not that a typewriter repair and retail store has kept its doors open. Rather, it’s that there are two in the same city — and that another just opened about an hour’s…

…and why they are just as pointless as you think they are, environmental issues aside! NFTs confuse many people. What, exactly, is a non-fungible token? Why are some ostensibly worth $100,000s to millions? What do you receive if you “purchase” one? What’s the notion behind them? An NFT relies on a blockchain, an ostensibly immutable record of ownership that uses cryptography to prove ownership. If…

The Printer’s Side — Book collectors make a big deal about first editions. Often, their interest is not just the first time a work appears in print, but rather the first printing of that work, too — a so-called first-first. It would be more accurate to call it the earliest edition, perhaps. I’m…

Update: The CEO who headed up the terrible decision left PCC in August 2021. In January 2022, PCC elevated its CFO, Krish Srinivasan, to the chief executive position. There has been little drama since. Update (April 30, 2021): PCC announced its member dividend for 2020, a new approach it took…

Listening to the wonderful No Such Thing as a Fish podcast this morning, made by the researchers (“elves”) of UK panel show QI, they brought up a problem with a joke included with Christmas crackers. Crackers are a British tradition — nothing to do with biscuits, cookies, or the like…

The public domain gained an entire year of material in 2019 and more is slated to come. — “Whose woods these are, I think I” — whoa! Until January 1, 2019, I couldn’t quote any more of this famous poem’s introduction, because of the dogged defense of copyright that the Robert Frost estate has engaged in for decades. But since that date, me, you, and everyone have been…

The 1919 Printing Strike That Wasn’t — In 1919, typesetters in New York wanted better working hours and better pay at job shops that handled much of the work for magazines. Their powerful union, the International Typographic Union (ITU), refused to authorize a general strike. Members of union locals took matters in their own hands, even though…

Sci-fi and fantasy novels thrive on the end of all things, but there are some in which the Earth and humanity aren’t particularly in danger. Warning! There will be minor spoilers for various books and movies below to explain where they fit into the “Earth/humanity goes boom” scenario. I cracked…