Month: May 2012

Messachusetts?

Just because I haven’t been posting anything doesn’t mean I’m dead, but I sure was not feeling well for a while, and my voice is only halfway recovered. There are 20 partially written posts I never finished, and most of them are too outdated to bother finishing.

I’m reading a think piece on Slate written by some guy from Massachusetts, extolling the virtues of the state — excuse me, Commonwealth — that I’ve lived in for the past 44 years. Click here. Something to keep in mind is that the wealth in Massachusetts is not distributed evenly geographically. Most of it is in the eastern quarter of the state, and it’s not a big state. Like other New England states, Massachusetts has a lot of struggling former mill towns, whose heyday ended in the 1920’s, when the textile industry moved south because water power was no longer needed.

Mad Men and Englishmen

Tonight on Mad Men I was surprised to hear the original Beatles recording of John Lennon’s Tomorrow Never Knows. That means the show is already up to August, 1966, or later. I’m glad Don Draper’s character is acknowledging that he’s out of touch with the fast-changing youth market.

On the home front, thanks to a prescription cough suppressant with codeine, I’ve been able to get some sleep the past two nights. My voice is starting to come back after being completely gone for several days.

Cold living

I’m suffering from the worst cold I’ve had in years. My voice is gone — which is considered a plus by some, I’m sure — and I’m having trouble sleeping due to the coughing that kicks in as soon as I lie down. This really is nothing worse than a bad cold, but bad it is.