The Avocet publishes poem “Last Call”

My poem “Last Call” was published in The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry, Fall 2026 print issue. The poem portrays Mother Nature as a barmaid alerting her customers as closing time nears. As the temperature drops, I am already thinking ahead to apt verses for the Winter 2026 issue. Learn more about the journal, which sends a free weekly e-zine, at The Avocet website. Read more about my occasional forays into writing poetry at POEMS.

Seasonal verses for nature-lovers

Why writers write: “I write because in spite of myself I’ve learned some things that I can neither file nor forget.” – Ralph Ellison

How Old Were They? Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal, age 19, created the first mechanical (digital) calculator in 1642. At 16, the French genius had written a treatise on geometry. A follower of “intuitionism,” he claimed to experience God through the heart rather than reason. In later years, he corresponded with Pierre de Fermat on probability theory, which influenced economics and the social sciences. Who knows what else he’d have accomplished if he hadn’t died at age 39? Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Pascal was a mathematical genius of invention during his short life

Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed

How Old Were They? Japanese Mountaineer Yuichiro Miura

Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to summit Mount Everest in 2013, at the age of 80. He was also the first person, at age 38, to ski down Mount Everest by slowing his descent with a parachute. Pushing limits defined his life. Dubbed the Godfather of Extreme Skiing, Miura was motivated by “the joy of forgetting yourself and becoming one with the mountains.” Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Yuichiro Miura, Godfather of Extreme Skiing, devoted his life to pushing the limits

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

How Old Were They? Drummer Buddy Rich

Drummer Buddy Rich began performing in vaudeville at 18 months. Born in Brooklyn in 1917, he was still in diapers when he appeared with his family as “Baby Traps, the Drum Wonder.” By age 11, Rich was leading his own band and by adulthood, after adding composing and conducting to his accomplishments, was already considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Rich is best known for his superhuman speed, flawless technique, and showmanship. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Bernard “Buddy” Rich discovered his affinity for jazz as a toddler

Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed

How Old Were They? Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was 27 when his debut novel The Sun also Rises was published in 1926. His novels, story collections, and non-fiction are classics of American literature, characterized by their pared down language and distinct grammar, often borrowed from Spanish. Easily parodied, but not successfully emulated, Hemingway was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his mastery of the art of narrative and influence he has exerted on contemporary style.” Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Hemingway, icon of American literature, is easily parodied but unsuccessfully emulated

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

How Old Were They? Julia Child

Julia Child was 40 when she found her true calling. A name now synonymous with culinary excellence, she didn’t know what a shallot was when she moved to Paris after WWII and fell in love with French cuisine. At a loss about what to do with herself, she studied at the celebrated Cordon Bleu cooking school. More than a decade (and many rejections) later, she published Mastering the Art of French Cooking and began the PBS program “The French Chef,” which ran for 10 years. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

The quintessential French chef didn’t discover her passion until age 40

Woodruff Home for the Aged, where aging with dignity battles corporate greed

How Old Were They? Frederick Banting

Frederick Banting was 32 when he became the youngest Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine in 1923 for his discovery of insulin and its role in diabetes in his lab at the University of Toronto. A surgeon and orthopedist, Banting shared the award with his student Charles Best. That same year, the Canadian government granted Banting a lifetime annuity to continue his work. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.

Discovery of insulin & its role in diabetes earned Banting Nobel Prize in Medicine at age 32

Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die

What I’m Reading: The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

My Goodreads and Amazon review of The Calamity Club: A Novel (Rated 5) – Fallen Women. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett is a tragic yet often hilarious novel about “fallen” women in Mississippi during the Great Depression. “Fallen” because they’ve been forced to turn to prostitution to support themselves; or “fallen” because, once wealthy, they’ve now become poor. There are also those who started out at the bottom, two of whom provide the voices that narrate Stockett’s wildly entertaining plot. One is the 24-year-old spinster Birdie, sharp-witted and competent, but biologically doomed to childlessness and so deemed unmarriageable. Another is the outspoken 11-year-old Meg, too smart for her own good, consigned to an orphanage straight out of hell, run by a rabid morality crusader. Stockett’s talent, in addition to being a good storyteller, is a gift for imbuing each character with a distinctive voice. As a novelist myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I admire her ability to capture the vocabulary and inflection of widely different players while honoring their common geographical identity. Stockett’s novel about calamity is a great success.

The best little whorehouse in 1930’s Mississippi

Why writers read: “A good book is an education of the heart.” – Susan Sontag

What’s in a Name?

In his trade war with Canada, Trump has proposed changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. That messes up the mnemonic HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior) for remembering the names of the five Great Lakes. However, anagrammed, the new word becomes SHAME. Would a lake by any other be as great? Names matter! As a fiction writer, I take great care naming my characters. Examples include Arvil, Dev, Em, Izora, Petra, Frima, and Miss Mamie Martine (also the name of my laptop). Meet them and others in NOVELS and read their books to fit the name to the person.

The five Great Lakes: HOMES (not SHAME)

“The names of my devils have excited a good deal of curiosity, and there have been many explanations, all wrong. The truth is that I aimed merely at making them nasty.” – C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)

Learn History Through Fiction: Wizard of Oz Released 87 Years Ago Today

The Wizard of Oz was officially released 87 years ago today on August 25, 1939. MGM previewed the movie in Wisconsin two weeks earlier to test its popularity in the Midwest, where the film is set, and see the audience response to Technicolor. Viewers were wowed! The film was also shown in Hollywood on August 15 and New York City on August 17 before it opened nationwide on August 25. Initial reviews were mostly positive, but some criticized MGM for encroaching on Disney territory. With average ticket prices 25 cents (and only 10 or 15 cents for children), it was a decade before MGM recouped its nearly $3 million investment, and the film’s longevity wasn’t assured until CBS began annual television broadcasts in 1956. Read more about the making of The Wizard of Oz and its “big” and “little” stars in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve and in NOVELS.

The Wizard of Oz opened on August 25, 1939, 87 years ago today

Can Meinhardt earn the dignity and respect given normal people?