Dennis E. Powell's View from Mudsock Heights

Dennis E. Powell is crackpot-at-large at Open for Business. Powell was a reporter in New York and elsewhere before moving to Ohio, where he has (mostly) recovered. You can reach him at dep@drippingwithirony.com.

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When We're Out of Touch

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 16, 2022 at 11:18 PM

If you’re at all like me, every so often you’ve watched coverage at the time or a documentary later about some great disaster, one that has taken many lives in horrific circumstances. You might have wondered — I have, anyway — about how or whether families and friends ever found out what happened to some of the victims. If you think of Hiroshima, or the tsunami of March 11, 2011, or even the events of September 11, 2001, you suspect — no, know — that there are people who died whose fates will be forever unknown to anyone this side of the Pearly Gates.

Tired of Losing

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 09, 2022 at 7:15 PM

The one important takeaway from yesterday’s election is that it’s unlikely that the current investigations into Donald Trump’s misdeeds will result in his indictment. Why would Democrat-controlled attorneys general go after their party’s most potent weapon?

Babel 2022

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 02, 2022 at 10:32 PM

You’ll occasionally run into someone who believes that it couldn’t be clearer: everything we’re experiencing was foreseen in the Book of Revelation. I’m not here to argue that, nor am I anyone’s idea of a Biblical scholar, but I think what we’re experiencing today is better illustrated not by the last book in the Bible but by the first.

Bee Positive

By Dennis E. Powell | Oct 26, 2022 at 11:01 PM

Thirteen years ago, before it was deliberately changed to “Doctor Who Cares?” there was a special one-shot episode of “Doctor Who,” entitled “Planet of the Dead.” It was good, as any show with David Tennant in the lead role tends to be. Michelle Ryan was excellent as Lady Christina de Souza, and I think I was not alone in hoping she was destined to become the Doctor’s companion.

Playing with Matches

By Dennis E. Powell | Oct 19, 2022 at 11:46 PM

We’ve all just about had it with hearing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the organism that produces the disease called COVID-19. But, sadly, we’re not done with it yet, nor it with us, nor are we likely to be anytime soon.

Back to the Present

By Dennis E. Powell | Oct 12, 2022 at 10:29 PM

The train ride was from whatever station is near Hamilton to Boston and back. I was in eastern Massachusetts for a horse show, but was taking a day off to do some work, namely visit the new digs of Miguel deIcaza and Nat Friedman, two of the brighter stars in the Linux firmament, and to interview them.

They were great to talk with, and the steampunk décor at their new company, Ximian, was bracing. I’d probably remember it pretty clearly even if that were the only thing that day which was out of the ordinary. But it wasn’t.

Did You Get the Signal?

By Dennis E. Powell | Oct 05, 2022 at 10:10 PM

It was an unexpected and chilling moment. As is my wont, as I made supper Monday night I had on in the background the Japanese international television station, NHK. The program was about learning the Japanese language by reading the news.

Making It "Better"

By Dennis E. Powell | Sep 28, 2022 at 4:43 PM
My friends tend to be people with whom a lively conversation might begin with this question: “How many perfectly useful things have you destroyed in an attempt to make them into something else?”

Forbearing Our Forebears

By Dennis E. Powell | Sep 21, 2022 at 12:02 PM

Autumn doesn’t begin until Thursday night — Friday morning if you’re a few time zones east of here — but recent events led me to begin a regular fall pastime a little early this year.

The State of Television Around Here

By Dennis E. Powell | Sep 14, 2022 at 9:45 AM

It was expensive as mute buttons go. That seems clear to me, but anyone else might need a little explanation. For the last number of years I have had in my bedroom what was the cheapest little flat-screen television that WalMart had to offer in about 2015, so it wasn’t much good seven years ago and today no one would purchase even a telephone with its low video specifications and lack of inputs.

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