Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4561 )

• Virtually Taxed

  

  Nobody ever explained it to me.  DVDs, with no moving parts, can still go bad.  Having amassed a library of them over the years, and storing them the recommende... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Skin Deep

  

  The thing about art-house movies is they’re meant to be discussed. I spend a lot of time alone and I watch most of my movies alone. There’s a kind of danger in... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• New Horseman

  

  You’d think it’d be obvious, but it took me some time to realize that when a story’s being retold in a literary context, the point isn’t to restate the... Read more

  Posted on 04 January 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Take the Tour

  

  If you read my blog posts on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads (Hi, y’all!), you may not be aware of my actual website.  Now I have no kind of fame, no matter... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Making Meaning

  

  The last book I slipped in under the wire of 2022 was Philip Ball’s excellent The Modern Myths: Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination. Read more

  Posted on 02 January 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Writing 2023

  

  I don’t put a great deal of stock in either round numbers or random passings of time, such as New Year’s Day.  Don’t get me wrong—I’m glad for the holiday—but... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2023 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Reading 2022

  

  Reading.  The crank of time seems to rotate faster each year.  For me, it’s noticeable when I look back on my year in books.  I find Goodreads indispensable... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Night Mom

  

  Kurt Vonnegut is one of those tragicomic writers that can leave you reeling. Mother Night was never on my must-read list, although I’ve read about it many times... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Disappearing

  

  It might be easy to suppose that horror uses religion gratuitously. Or it may be that the connection runs much deeper. Yes, many people are still religious as... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• All Wet

  

  If I keep up this pace I’ll finish next year. Reading the full set of Dark Shadows novels by Marilyn Ross, that is. Since they tell me I’m an adult, this might... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Word of the Year

  

  I still have to look up “goblin mode” each time I read it.  I’ve been reading it quite a bit because it was Oxford University Press’ word of the year for 2022. Read more

  Posted on 27 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Okay to Look

  

  I admit to having learned about Daphne du Maurier from Alfred Hitchcock, and then only after my wife pointed her out to me. I read our copy of Rebecca with... Read more

  Posted on 26 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ideal Christmas

  

  This blog is even open on Christmas.  I’m enough of a pragmatist to realize that few read it today, but even Carl Sagan knew that launching the Pioneer plaques... Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Eve Before Christmas

  

  Even as we sit here on Christmas Eve, the work week finally over, my thoughts go to those who celebrate different holidays.  Or none at all. Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Space Ads

  

  So, I’ve got enough stuff to worry about down here—the chimney needs some attention, that backyard gate still doesn’t hang right, and Giant keeps on running... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Holiday Horrors

  

  Holiday horror is a genre—really a sub-genre—that is still being explored. It’s the subject of my my latest YouTube video. Typical definitions suggest that it... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Yule Tidings

  

  Happy Yule!  One of the things my British colleagues find hard to believe is how Dickensian American employers are about days off around the holidays. Read more

  Posted on 21 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Best Beasts

  

  Strange Beasts of China left me strangely affected. Yan Ge’s novel received quite a bit of acclaim for a book of speculative fiction. Of course whether or not i... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Seasonal Sights and Sounds

  

  It’s listed as one of the top ten Christmas activities in Pennsylvania.  Koziar’s Christmas Village, located north of Reading and really out in the country,... Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Blooming in December

  

  The cascading petunias are doing fine.  It’s a little odd to see them in December, given that petunias are annuals, not perennials. Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY