Jerm Jarden is in some deep ship. — The following is the introduction of the new upper middle grade novel ODDER SPACE, now available as a paperback and an eBook from Amazon. First Things First In school, back home, my eighth-grade science class learned that there’s no sound in outer space. Our teacher, Mr. Eno, explained that space is a vacuum…

Let’s review protocol, shall we? — From: Principal Stern To: All S. Gompers Middle School Faculty and Staff Re: Flag Protocol Good morning, fellow Gomperians. Just a quick memo to update you on the rules and guidelines that govern the presentation of the flags on the flagpole in the front of our building. Several members of…

Literally, you can get butter. — A wise man once said, “You either get bitter or you get better. It’s that simple.” I think it was a man, anyway. I came by this bon mot secondhand. For that matter, whether he was wise generally — or just had a specific moment of wisdom — might also…

“Claptrap” is such a great word, don’t you think? — Last night, because I apparently had nothing better to do, I watched a very short video in which a man (“Man 1”) asked another man (“Man 2”) a question about motivation. I should mention that (a) I had the sound off and was reading the subtitles, and (b) I do…

Well, it’s that time again. The period immediately before and after December 25. Yuletide. Noel. Christmas. When nice Jewish boys are looking back on stories posted in years past around this time… and posting links to those, because he was too busy and/or lazy to write something new. (And only…