Why I Don’t Go Paperless

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Is it really “green” to go for paperless billing, or is it just a “dark pattern” by which companies seek to distance you from your costs, fees and other nastiness? Read on to see wny I think it’s a dark pattern and what the actual difference in carbon footprint is.

The Boy Behind The Couch

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In which our hero recalls an embarrassing moment in the life of a barely-teen introvert upon reading a chance passage in Susan Cain’s book Quiet and discovers his true nature.

Learning to Read

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We talk about “learning to read” as if it’s something we do and is done. As in “when did he learn to read?” But I’m 52 and still learning to read. In this article I recount my meetings with extraordinary readers and what goes into truly learning to read.

The Academy Weighs in on Life Hacking

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There is no English Academy, like there is for French, to protect our language from Philistines. So I’m saying it here: if I ever say in seriousness that I have found a great new lifehack, please shoot me. There’s nothing left worth saving.

Sarah’s Watch

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A man awakes in a cell with nothing but a watch that won’t even truly tell him the time. And secondarily, an experiment in writing using the Hemmingway App

Stealing Communion Bread in Reformation Geneva

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The development and refinement of the doctrine of transsubstantiation in the 12th and 13th centuries, culiminating in the creation of the Corpus Christi feast in 1264, resulted in a dramatically heightened focus on the eucharist. This had two obvious consequences: first it made it more desirable to steal the host and, second, it made it […]

Does Google Care about Custom Excerpts in WordPress?

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You no longer have to worry about Google ranking your Wordpress archive pages and leaving your main page rotting on the vine, but if you’re happy with that you’re missing a big opportunity. Custom excerpts improve the user experience and help you rank in Google.