Open for Business

11/12/2025

Dennis E. Powell reflects that 35 years ago, RIME and BBSes felt like modern marvels. Today, technology delivers news of a Japanese "mega quake" threat at the speed of light. That can be both helpful and cause for more worrying.

Time passes quickly in a busy life, so it oughtn’t surprise me that 1989 is as long ago as it was. But surprise me it does.

11/12/2025

The latest review: “ is a long-running name in stylish computer accessories, but one that comes to mind for, say, a Thunderbolt hub, not a . The SM3 is a strong argument the time has come for them to be a part of the keyboard discussion.”

https://reviews.ofb.biz/sa1375

28/11/2025

Jason Kettinger turns to Biblical musings on this Thanksgiving week. “In Matthew 16:13-18, we have Jesus reminding us that the time is urgent. In this way, St. Matthew and St. Luke are capturing the urgency of Christ as prophet. Sometimes, the challenge of Jesus is not in what he says, but in that he dares to tell us that our time to decide what to do with him is limited.”

In Matthew 16: 13-18, we have Jesus reminding us that the time is urgent. In this way, St. Matthew and St. Luke are capturing the urgency of Christ as prophet. Sometimes, the challenge of Jesus is not in what he says, but in that he dares to tell us that our time to decide what to do with him is lim...

28/11/2025

Dennis E. Powell takes us on an unexpected adventure for . “[Today] is Thanksgiving, as you probably know. This year it's even harder to feel seasonal warmth, because I'm in a near-blind rage.”

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, as you probably know.

20/11/2025

no longer happens on a Friday or even in the week of the namesake Friday. It’s in full effect now and some of our perennial favorite fruity themed deals are back and worth grabbing before the deals sell out.
‪reviews.ofb.biz/sa1369‬

Black Friday no longer happens on a Friday or even in the week of the namesake Friday. It’s in full effect now and some of our perennial favorite fruity themed deals are back and worth grabbing before the deals sell out.

12/11/2025

“We had other rabbits, too, little gray cottontails that gamboled in the fields. We did not look after those, nor for the most part did we eat them. They had to come up with their own food, they had to work out their own romantic arrangements, and they were not protected from predators by a sturdy hutch. On the other hand they didn't get taken away to be butchered and packaged.

"If they had been given the choice, would they have swapped their circumstances?

"What brings this to mind is the state of our country and the assumptions that supposedly thinking people are making and the choices they make.”

When I was small, living on a small farm near a college town, my father fell for an idea proffered by the Ralston Purina Company of Checkerboard Square in St. Louis.

12/11/2025

Jason Kettinger muses on Star Trek: TNG. "The episode that concluded its 3rd season, and its heart, the capture of Picard by the Borg, is resolved in Season 4's opening. But the next episode deserves to be remembered as the third part of the story." https://ofb.biz/sa1367

“Best Of Both Worlds,” part 1 was the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that concluded its third season, and its heart — the capture of Jean-Luc Picard by the Borg, and his transformation into “Locutus” — is resolved in Season 4’s opening part 2. But the next episode, “Family,.....

05/11/2025

Dennis E. Powell contemplates grocery stores annoying reorganizations. "It was the day that I stopped forever my weekly visit to Kroger. The COVID-19 epidemic was underway, and we were advised to stay away from each other. It was cold, and the forecast was that an ice storm would hit about sundown (made an hour earlier each year for no good reason by the switch to standard time)."

It was the day that I stopped forever my weekly visit to Kroger.

05/11/2025

Jason Kettinger gives out a playlist of music he shared with his nephew. What do you think of it?

It reflects me as much as him. But isn’t family truly the shared experience of knowing and enjoying one another? He likes Gracie Abrams, so I put “That’s So True” on the list, because I like it, too. She’s like a Jewish Taylor Swift; even to say it like that feels like a massive compliment...

29/10/2025

Dennis E. Powell takes us through three "balls of confusion" in a story about wasps, baseball... and Google. https://ofb.biz/sa1364

29/10/2025

"We all love to hate : it is imperfect, but unavoidably useful; biased, but somewhat correctable. Could take what is good about it and round off the rough edges? _Maybe._"

We all love to hate Wikipedia: it is imperfect, but unavoidably useful; biased, but somewhat correctable. Could Grokipedia take what is good about it and round off the rough edges? _Maybe._

29/10/2025

Jason Kettinger writes, "And what’s really galling about this casual misandry is that it’s highly selective. Not too many people are embracing celibacy and sexual abstinence on account of men. This 'reproductive right' is apparently only the right to kill the products of their conception."

When I wrote “The Democrats Who Cried Wolf,” mentally, this was the next column. Alas, life. You have been in good hands, I know.