West Coast Review

Are you going to watch the eclipse tonight? Seriously folks, this is not trick. That is the Burning Question this week.

Yes, this week is Burning Question #46. Yes, 46 out of 50 Burning Questions.

Did any of you see the FULL the Solar Eclipse in September, 2018? I camping with friends in Lincoln City, Oregon when I saw it. The FULL SOLAR ECLIPSE. Wow. It was take-your-breath-away spectacular. Since I was a child I’ve been trying to see every lunar eclipse I can. The one coming up this weekend is no exception.

“A full 62 luxurious minutes of totality,” says Sky and Telescope Magazine.

“The Only Total Lunar Eclipse of 2019,” promises NASA.

“This full moon will appear to be one of the largest of 2019,” reports Space.com.

North and South America will get the best view of the super “blood moon,” but you might get…

Proof that Mars can support life!

Proof of Life on Mars!

Is there life on Mars? You can Count on it!

Mystery Solved!

Proof of Life on Mars

Southern Mars

From the VM archives from 2013. A Thanksgiving story from long ago.

Stay with me on this one…

After skate practice (roller) my daughter grabbed my purse for me and said “WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN THAT THING?”

I said “River rocks.”

She said, “I will never carry a purse and fill it full of crap.”

I told her that it was none of her business what I had in my purse or how much it weights.

And by the time we got to the car she said a gun in my purse would be heavy. Then I told her I didn’t have a carry permit and she said I didn’t need one. Yes, this is the 14 year old, but we have hypothetical conversations like this all the time so don’t worry about it. Anyway, she asked if she had a needle, like a knitting needle would that be…

As Chloe walked her dog on the cold November morning, her mind turned to the holidays.

Why was there yet ANOTHER remake of the Grinch? Why couldn’t they just leave it alone. No. Somebody just had to make another piss poor remake with another famous voice. She thought of how wonderful Boris Karloff had voiced the original story – from the original book. Boris Karloff. The Body Snatchers was such a wonderful movie. Not exactly a holiday movie but she loved it. It was one of those comfort things like so many old black and white movies.

The dog Piper, a medium Lab mix, sniffed around at some bushes. Buck the large German Shepard growled under his breath. Piper raised up her head and leaned in against Chloe.

A man in a green jumpsuit stood at the end of the road by the edge of the woods. He had a…

Who will be at your Thanksgiving table? I know who will be UNDER my table. But this is about who will be above the table.

Thanksgiving will soon be here. Yes, this week’s Burning Question is about the upcoming holiday. If you don’t celebrate the traditional American (USA) version of Thanksgiving you can still imaging who you would like at your table at any large celebration where there is a lot of conversation and wine. 

Are you tired of the same old Thanksgiving conversations about Uncle Beezie’s corns, or Aunt Lulu’s prize winning rabbit hutches, or why Cousin Karl can’t get his shit together? Wouldn’t it be nice not to have to yell, “Shut the fuck up,” before the turkey is even carved?

Just imagine if you could mix it up a little. What if you could add three more new and interesting famous or semi-famous people (animals or Vampires)…

Seriously, I did date that guy, and more.

What you share with your kids and what you don’t is up to your own comfort level. You don’t want to tell them everything. They don’t need to know it all. But you don’t want to tell them nothing. But this isn’t exactly what this post is about.

How do your kids see you now? Who are you? What do you do? Do they know? Do they care? They should care. They should be thrilled.

Do a little bit of PR work on your own kids. Seriously, if you’re a parent you need public relations.

How do your kids see you?

I’m not talking about “honor thy mother and father,” or anything to do with authority. I’m not going to discuss examples of piss poor bad parenting. I’m not going to talk about being perfect.

I’m talking image. AND when you live…

Max was brooding. It is what my eldest brother does best.

I’d come home and found him sulking in my living room on the red couch brooding over a book on the symbolism of art.

“Why does everything have to be so complicated? Why can’t a dove just be a dove, or a sunset just a phenomenon based on the rotation of the earth?”

“You sound like Andy,” I told him. Andy is another brother of mine who likes to wax poetically 24/7 and imagines himself deep. Andy is deep and it works for him. It just sounds weird and uncomfortable when Max does it.

His two giant wolfhounds, along with my sled-dog-mongrel lay sprawled in carpet of dogs at Max’s feet.

I invited Max for Halloween. I thought a quiet night of little monsters and our usual gathering with friends and kids and non-Vampire folks would do him good. Or it…

Spring semester was supposed to start January 18. Maybe he’d lodge his leg out of the hole in the attic before then. His first class had a wait list of twelve, but he was sure at least five wouldn’t show so at least five wait list students would get in. No show, no class.

Why the Hell was he thinking of that right now. There were Vampires, or at least dried up husks of old Vampires wrapped in blankets four feet from him. Damn, he’d hoped they were dead enough not to smell the blood coming out of the cut on his leg.

The first class was titled “Major Problems in US History.” Fuck, that was fitting and timely. Every morning he wished the news would just go away. He wished he could go should on the streets, on Fox News, NPR, CNN, Buzz Feed, The Washington Post, and every…