Well, judging by what I found in my e-mailbox upon awakening this A.M., the big news story is that my pal Ken Levine has decided to end his long-running, popular blog. I certainly understand his reasons and can't argue with one of them. It's just a shame for those of us who enjoy it and find it valuable. Ken is really good at being funny and really good at understanding the business(es) in which he has chosen to work. I know a lot of folks who are good at one of those things but precious few who, like Ken, excel at both. The good thing for him is that now he will have time to have lunch with me again and also to take on eight or nine more careers and be successful in all of them.
My trip to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store yesterday went exactly as I expected.
I'm getting that feeling again that I don't want to pay a lot of attention to politics for a while. It usually involves the realization that I'm paying too much attention to clickbait as opposed to actual developments…and that certain stories (like Trump and the classified documents) are going to play out at their own pace no matter what I do. I can't hurry them along or direct them to what I think is the proper conclusion merely by paying attention to them. Tracking every little rumor, theory or tiny development is just putting yourself on an emotional roller coaster for no good reason.
That said, I would like to suggest reading this conversation with "folklorist" Patricia Turner. She tracks a lot of the absurd beliefs some people out there had or still have, in this case about Barack and Michelle Obama. There are folks in this world who, if they have some negative emotional response to someone, want to believe every horrible thing they can think of about them. Some people these days don't need the slightest evidence to call someone a pedophile.
Lastly for now: I have no conventions planned and no "appearances" scheduled. My jaunt to Comic-Con International was mostly enjoyable but I came home with a stronger-than-ever urge to not leave my house. I expect this feeling to wear off in time for me to attend WonderCon in Anaheim next March but I just don't want to stray much farther than my zip code and a few adjacent ones. This too shall pass.