Author Archives: Mike Clark

A Bittersweet Wedding Anniversary

Posted on August 22, 2015 by Mike Clark

Today my beloved wife Waltraut and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary!  35 is a good number, and while not as amazing as 50 or 60, it is still respectable.  We’ve had our frustrations, our disagreements, and our grumpy days … Continue reading →

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Death, where is thy sting? Or Grave, thy victory?

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Mike Clark

Just a few days after my last post here my wife and I discovered that her cancer had advanced past the point where the medical types thought they had a chance of a successful treatment outcome.  One of the physicians … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

No April Fool’s Doodle on Google?

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Mike Clark

This isn’t an April Fool’s in and of itself, but I went to Google.com in order to see what they had come up with for an April Fool’s Doodle this year.  But apparently they have decided that it’s Opposite Day … Continue reading →

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Global Climate Change One More Time

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Mike Clark

My earlier post on global climate change, “We’re All Going to — Die? Warm Up?“, got some interest lately when someone in a forum I participate in challenged me on it in a private message exchange.  Since it was a … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | 1 Comment

My School Chum, Gustav Holst

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Mike Clark

Well, not quite. The number of years between his attendance and mine separates us from the chance that we could ever have interacted, but I was pleasantly surprised this morning to discover that Gustav Holst, the composer of the famous … Continue reading →

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The Handmaid’s Tale vs Talking Squids in Outer Space

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Mike Clark

Knowing her to be an otherwise intelligent and thoughtful person – an opinion I base almost entirely upon her brilliant novel, Fluency, since of course I’ve never met her or communicated with her – I was somewhat dismayed to read … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Science Fiction | 2 Comments

What are these plants?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Mike Clark

Several years ago the City of Olympia planted some trees along our street, and these were immediately attacked by the low-life vandals who walk through the neighborhood from time to time, heading from the downtown bars to the Section 8 … Continue reading →

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Fluency

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Mike Clark

It’s been quite a while since I’ve bought and read any new science-fiction by any but a select circle of writers.  My favorites have been Jerry Pournelle (who doesn’t write much any more, unfortunately), Lois McMaster Bujold, David Sherman, and … Continue reading →

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The Wonders of Human Improvisation

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Mike Clark

I’ve always thought that the Zero Population Growth movement was idiotic.  This is not because I think “The more humans the better”, though I do think this, but that “The more humans the better chance of more geniuses.”  We need … Continue reading →

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Some Good News

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Mike Clark

In the heat of my last post I indicated that my wife’s cancer had spread everywhere and was soon going to kill her, and at the time that was her surgeon’s fear, given the advanced state of the main tumor.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Family | 1 Comment