On Hiatus

Exit, pursued by a bear kangaroo

So, I want to stay in touch with all my peeps, but I am getting weary of the whole social media scene and blogs are apparently just too 2008. In light of this, I am suspending operations on Instagram and on this blog - no new posts will be forthcoming.

But fear not- if you really want to continue to hear from me, just click the link below and subscribe to the Walaka Tribune!

Once a week (or so) you'll get a fun little email newsletter from me with cartoons, book reviews, news, photos, and random thoughts. And you can just hit the reply button to say hi back and let me know what's up with you - it's a win-win!

Here's that link:

SUBSCRIBE TO THE WALAKA TRIBUNE

I hope to hear from you soon!

Solitaire Book Club: Empire of the Sum

Empire of the Sum by Keith Houston. Another entry from both the I-heard-about-it-on-a-podcast and Kurlansky-style-non-fiction categories, Houston's fast, funny, and thoroughly-well-documented book is subtitled The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator and it lives up to its name. Starting with the axiom that the existence of a pocket calculator necessitates pockets and calculation, Houston takes us through the development of both, from biology and prehistory  onward. Pockets are dispensed with pretty quickly, but the path to a calculator as we know it takes us from counting rods to abacuses to slide rules and through mechanical and electrical adding machines to get to the glory days of the late 20th century and the ubiquitous TI-81. Houston rides us into the sunset as well, detailing the calculators replacement by - and assimilation into - the computer and mobile device.

A great read all the way through, and I will be looking for his works on Punctuation and The Book.