Saturday, December 13, 2025

Peppermint the Christmas Penguin

It's Christmas time again. Several years ago, Craig, Scott, and George decided to try their hands at writing a Christmas story. It did not turn out exactly how Scott had expected when he started the story. In the end, it was each of the writers attempting to out-do the other. It is a fun story, even if it's not exactly very kid friendly. You've been warned. What follows is the full, unedited story by Craig, Scott, and George. It's just supposed to be a little bit of fun. It is dedicated to the memory of our brother, George, who wished he could celebrate Christmas year-round.

Friday, December 12, 2025

It's a Novel Idea: The Radium Girls

The Radium Girls - Kate Moore
Sourcebooks
504 Pages

Having grown up listening to newscast after newscast in the late 1970s and early 1980s about Love Canal, I get the gist of the idea that our government will often cater to big business over the interests of the people. To be fair, while this fact seemed a surprise during the whole Love Canal incident, it should come as no surprise that we have a long history with the same, dark underbelly. The case in this instance is the plight of the so-called “radium girls” of the 1920s and 1930s. They, too, were hung out to dry by the very people who were supposed to protect them. Barely a decade after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, you would have thought the powers that be would have learned something. However, ignoring history to prevent similar events from happening again is not our strong suit.

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Bacon Presidential Library Vol. 32: Washington's End

Washington’s End - Jonathan Horn
Scribner
330 Pages

While this was the last book that I read in the George Washington part of my Presidential Reading Project, it was the first one that I owned. I had purchased it as soon as it came out, back in February 2020. Washington’s End by Jonathan Horn was a short, yet quite informative read on the later life of George Washington.