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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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Honest to Goodness Good Stuff
Something fairly profound happened to my wife and me Sunday. I have a group of friends that I communicate with regularly via an e-mail list, and Sunday afternoon I shared what happened with them. One asked, "Great story. Will you be sharing it with your readers?"
Hm: good question. I said I was pondering it -- but I don't very often tell stories about my volunteer EMS experiences in my weird news newsletter, yaknow? Another piped up: "Do it. People need good news right now. Especially some of us who are getting nervous as 50-somethings around us are dropping. Mortality is weighing quite heavy on some. Good news, firsthand accounts of honest to goodness good stuff helps."
Zero Tolerance Thwarted by Common Sense
The first story in True about "zero tolerance" appeared in February, 1997, and I started railing about the concept soon after. It took about 10 years before I starting noticing other columnists editorializing against ZT.
Continue reading "Zero Tolerance Thwarted by Common Sense" »
Don't Talk to the Cops
Some readers will be a bit puzzled why I would spread this message in my blog: "Do not, under any circumstances, be interviewed by the police without advice from a lawyer." You have a right to remain silent, and I urge you to exercise that right. Especially if you are innocent.
Herb Caen: Master of the Three Dots
This story is what got me started on remembering Herb Caen -- it's from True's 17 May 2009 issue:
The War on Kids
There will probably be two responses to the first story in this week's issue: 1) I was too hard on the public library/librarian, and 2) I wasn't hard enough on her. To be sure, my tagline was judging her based on the standards of the American Library Association.
But first the story, from True's 10 May 2009 issue:
Crash Boom Bang
I've been using computers for many, many years now, and finally had something happen to me that has never happened before: a disk crash. It happened yesterday. "But you have backups, right?" you might wonder. But of course! I back up to a network disk system every night. And that's what crashed: my backup disk!
Spring Snow
It was a good day to stay inside today. Just because it's well into Spring doesn't mean it doesn't want to snow in Colorado! It came down all day today, sometimes in "whiteout" conditions, piling up about 18" (46 cm) at my house. It stopped about two hours before tonight's newsletter went out, so I just posted an amazing photo of what happens here when it snows:
Duhism
There's something True's fans have in common: a profound appreciation for the absurdities of everyday life. You read a story in True and slap your forehead, thinking "Duh! How stupid can a guy get?!" The amusement is tempered by knowing that we've all done stupid things -- but luckily not that stupid.
TANSTAAFL, Baby
Very often readers ask me for advice about starting an online business -- when I started in 1994, there wasn't anyone to ask, and I've learned a lot in the nearly 15 years since. Obviously one can learn some things by watching what I do, but there are others who are in the business of teaching such things, and that's faster (and more generic). The problem is, a lot of those in the business are fly-by-night know-nothings who will gladly take a lot of money from you, and may or may not deliver actual value for your investment.
Another April, Another Mass Shooting
There was another mass shooting today, a nut with a gun at an immigration office in New York, with at least a dozen killed. Here's what I want to know: why do these things so often happen in April?
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