Until recently, commenting has been restricted to registered users due to the ridiculous torrent of spam which any website automatically attracts.  Before registration was required, I was using Akismet, which was fairly effective, as in it caught 99.9%.  Despite Akismet’s valiant attempts, the sheer volume of spam meant that a lot was making its way [...]

I guiltily enjoyed this rant by Timothy Egan in the NY Times about people who become “writers” as a result of celebrity or unusual life experiences rather than the possession of actual writing ability.
Most of the writers I know work every day, in obscurity and close to poverty, trying to say one thing well and [...]