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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The Clanking Gadget at Center of My Do-It-Yourself Physical Therapy

By Dennis E. Powell | Jun 03, 2021 at 3:04 PM

This didn’t turn out at all as I’d expected. Here’s the prelude: When I made pictures for a living, I got plenty of exercise. Walking five miles or more per day was routine. I’ve run backwards up hills (so as to photograph parades and protests coming up those hills) and carried lots of photographic gear appreciable distances, about which my muscles later registered an opinion.

What We Enjoyed Here Five Years Ago Draws a Different Reception Back East

By Dennis E. Powell | May 27, 2021 at 3:12 PM

You kinda gotta laugh.

If you pay any attention to the national news you have seen how Washington, D.C. has gone more berserk than normal. The cause of this particular derangement is this year’s emergence of the proud members of brood X of the 17-year cicada.

Our Living Links to the Past Won't Be Around Forever

By Dennis E. Powell | May 19, 2021 at 9:36 PM

My maternal grandmother, were she still alive, would have turned 141 years old today.

Emergency Computer Repair Brings Potential Legislation to Mind

By Dennis E. Powell | May 12, 2021 at 11:52 PM

In the spring of odd-numbered years, it’s my task to upgrade the operating systems on my computers. It sometimes goes uneventfully.

An Old Quiz Show Might Underline What's Wrong with Today's Higher Education

By Dennis E. Powell | May 05, 2021 at 11:10 PM

It’s not nostalgia that leads me to think of a television show that all but disappeared more than 50 years ago. I bring up the once-famous “GE College Bowl” for an entirely different reason.

We Once Knew the Theme Songs to Even Ordinary Television Shows

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 28, 2021 at 11:10 PM

In March 1981 a moderately successful television program premiered on ABC. “The Greatest American Hero” was a semi-spoof superhero show that ran for three seasons, neither a huge hit nor a bomb.

A Love Story for the Ages Enters its Next and Final Chapter

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 21, 2021 at 11:36 AM

We’re not supposed to be surprised that Ernest Elbert Midkiff has died, which he did last Wednesday. He was, after all, 99 years old. He would have turned 100 on Veterans Day.

Spring is Loveliest When You Hit the Woods and Crawl Around a Little

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 16, 2021 at 2:29 PM

Though it’s not true all over the country, here in southeastern Ohio we are enjoying an early spring. As I write this, the forecast for today, Wednesday, has a high of 63 degrees, with plenty of recent days having reached 70 and above. A year ago today it only got to 46 degrees here.

A Normie's Haphazardly Ordered Guide to an Often-Overlooked Art Form

By Dennis E. Powell | Apr 08, 2021 at 12:29 PM

For the last little while I've been watching a remarkable program, "Wonder Egg Priority," that adopts an unconventional fantasy approach in considering the tragedy of child suicides. Before that, I watched and very much enjoyed a series, "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai," which despite the weird title takes a metaphysical view of adolescent issues. My favorite movie is the highly praised "Your Name," a comedy-romance-thriller-mystery.

The Meaning of Words Ought to Include Their Flavor, and Beauty, and Nuance

By Dennis E. Powell | Mar 31, 2021 at 9:32 PM

Last week it fell to me to help assemble a piece of exercise equipment. There was no brand name or country of origin specified, but the enclosed documentation suggested that it was written in a distant land or else by an associate professor of one of the social sciences. In that once put together the thing actually worked, I’ll assume the former.

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