Curations from the Human Jungle
[Bananas are great, so are chutes and leaves, but sometimes you are hankering for that taste experience that you've never had before. Here are some ideas. SB SM] 14 Flavor-Bomb Condiments That Rescue Boring Meals No matter how good a cook you are, there will always be days when you’re just not on your game.... Continue Reading →
[This is how things go these days. Trying to make the point that no one pays attention to me, or to the pants that i happen to be wearing, I post that I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say "Did you see those pants that Stephen Morris was wearing?... Continue Reading →
[Big doins' at The Parsonage today. No silliness. More explanation to follow. SM]
Like all great ideas, The Classic was conceived on a cold winter’s night when summer seemed a thousand … a million years away. It was at the McKeon’s house. Someone (Greg Schipa? John McKeon?) said “Wouldn’t it be incredible if next summer we could get in good enough shape to run all the way around... Continue Reading →
[I didn't know Dave personally, but I feel like he would have liked being a Silverback. I don't really know the author, either, although he is a college classmate. He's Silverback-worthy, too. We steer clear of politics here in The Jungle, but this a touching story of personal transformation, well told. Welcome to The Jungle,... Continue Reading →
[I violate this rule constantly. Maybe reading this will help me mend my wicked ways. SB SM] Defending Adverbs Exuberantly if Conditionally Lincoln Michel May 28, 2025 https://countercraft.substack.com/p/defending-adverbs-exuberantly Recently, I’ve been thinking about adverbs. Everyone hates adverbs. But I say they hate them foolishly and incorrectly. I called this newsletter Counter Craft because I wanted to offer... Continue Reading →
[Now, there's a click-bait worthy headline!! I do consider myself a writer, and I agree that the creative process is very different when recording thoughts on paper versus on the keyboard. Where I take exception, however, is when writers turn the act of recording their thoughts into a religious experience that becomes an end in... Continue Reading →
[This is a very dicey subject for writers, especially of original fiction. The Internet has democratized publishing, but to such an extent that the surviving world is unnavigable. In other words, there's so much uncurated garbage flowing off of emancipated keyboards that's it's impossible to tell what is worth your time reading. Hence, "Bring Back... Continue Reading →
Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com [I'm 78, and I wear hearing aids. And I hate them. They're uncomfortable, and they overlay the world with a veneer of artificiality. It's hard to explain. I wake up in the morning, and the world sounds as it should. It doesn't sound muffled or far away. It sounds... Continue Reading →
["Tell them I said something .." supposedly, these were the final words of the Mexican military general Santa Ana when the assembled masses were keeping a death vigil outside his second-story bedroom. OK, he said something ... so what was it? What pearl of wisdom did the great being crystalize in his final moment? For... Continue Reading →