Tired of my typical snarky, off beat observations and blog posts? Prefer a standard, composed post on a topic? This is why I periodically pass along a blog post created by Artificial Intelligence on a random National Day. Sit back and enjoy a staid and standard blog created by Chat GPT. Illustrations inserted from my … Continue reading 🐿️ National Squirrel Appreciation Day: Celebrating the Tiny Acrobats in Our Trees
Month: January 2026
National Thesaurus Day
A Thesaurus is a valuable tool for a writer. But look up the word Thesaurus in a Thesaurus and it is difficult to describe briefly. Yes it is an assembly of synonyms and antonyms but there is no other good single other word for the book. They toss around terms like "treasury of words" and … Continue reading National Thesaurus Day
92nd anniversary of the longest gun battle in FBI history (and a link to an original post about a tour of the site)
Today is the 92nd anniversary of the longest shoot-out in FBI history and it all happened not far from on the shores of Lake Weir, Florida. If you are interested in more here is a link to replay of a previous post regarding to tour of the house where it happened. Enjoy! https://walterthinnes.blog/2023/01/20/a-tour-of-the-ma-barker-house/
In Memoriam – Erich von Daniken and his contributions to the decline of critical thinking skills
I am an avid reader of the New York Times Obituary section and I use this series to comment on notable passings, not always in a laudatory manner. Writer Erich von Daniken, writer of several best sellers including "Chariots of the Gods" recently passed away at 90 years old. It posited that space aliens visited … Continue reading In Memoriam – Erich von Daniken and his contributions to the decline of critical thinking skills
Trepidations of a Baseball Fan
This is the off season for my favorite sport. We call it The Hot Stove League, where baseball fans gather around to chatter about off season moves and coming prospects for our favorite teams. For my beloved Cincinnati Reds that answer seems to be ... meh, not much. This came to my mind as I … Continue reading Trepidations of a Baseball Fan
In Memoriam – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
I am a Newspaper sort of guy. I grew up reading the Miami Herald and graduated to the New York Times. I still subscribe to the NYT digitally and it is my main source of information. Along the way I lived in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for two years and subscribed to the Post Gazette during that … Continue reading In Memoriam – The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
National Trivia Day and a HyperLocal Question
Today is National Trivia Day and trivia suffuses our culture. From Jeopardy! on television to Trivia Nights at your local bar it is everywhere. I'll forego the observation that our society needs to focus more on the bigger issues and less on trivial memorization. Having said that, I will make this personal. Recently I told … Continue reading National Trivia Day and a HyperLocal Question
A New Year and a Return to Old Posts
Bet you can guess what my New Year's Resolution was! Yep, to revivify my dormant blog activity. Even though I've kept the account for years, it has been dormant the last few months. So I thought I'd give it a kick in 2026 and here we go again. Though I have been silent, the blog … Continue reading A New Year and a Return to Old Posts
Personal reflection on Mamdani Inauguration
Yesterday a great deal was made of the inauguration of Zohran Mamadani as the new Mayor of New York City. I follow it with great interest as I recently lived for a quarter of century in that great city. During my time there I had just one opportunity to attend an inaugurations of a New … Continue reading Personal reflection on Mamdani Inauguration
Walter Thinnes 
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