Author Archives: oddmanout215

Hanging out with Goethe at Cherry Blossom Fest


Swamp Rabbit looked around and said, “Where are the cherry blossoms?” It was a good question. We’d arrived to work the 18th annual Cherry Blossom Festival, at the Horticultural Center in West Fairmount Park. There was plenty of greenery but … Continue reading

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Is the GOP fascist? Let’s consult the experts.


“Is it a good thing or a bad thing that they got their jobs back?” Swamp Rabbit said. “What did them experts at The Washington Post say?” He was referring to the reinstatement this week of Reps. Justin Pearson and … Continue reading

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Cloud cover to blame for overcast, experts say


Swamp Rabbit was retching on the side of the road near my shack. I had just shown him a front-page story in Washington Post that featured this headline: Tennessee vote marks latest GOP move to stifle dissent, experts say. “Those … Continue reading

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What lies beneath rock bottom?


I read to Swamp Rabbit from an op/ed in which the venerable rightwing attack dog George F. Will comments on the state of the nation: Today’s embarrassments — Donald Trump, his prosecutorial adversaries, the tribalism on both sides — might … Continue reading

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A pre-April Fools’ Day joke on Trump


Swamp Rabbit: Ha-ha-ha-ha! Odd Man Out: Alright, what’s so funny? Swamp Rabbit: The grand jury didn’t meet on Wednesday, so Trump tweeted that “the Rogue prosecutor… is having a hard time with the Grand Jury” because he’s trying to make … Continue reading

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20 years since Shock and Awe? ‘Good God, y’all!’


Swamp Rabbit examined the playlist of protest songs I compiled to acknowledge the 20th anniversary of the Second Persian Gulf War. He played “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and started laughing. “That song came out in 1971, during the Vietnam War,” … Continue reading

Posted in apocalypse, history, humor, Iraq war, mainstream media, pop music, terrorism | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Trumpers love whales. Who knew?


We were discussing the rumor that whales are being killed by sonar emanating from offshore wind turbines in the northeastern part of the country. Swamp Rabbit explained: The world is like a big house with a crawl space in the … Continue reading

Posted in climate change, environmentalism, humor, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Belated valentines for the broken-hearted


Swamp Rabbit was at my shack waiting to welcome me home from a long road trip that ended on the treacherous backstreets of York, PA. I drove through an intersection with a sudden slope and the car came down hard … Continue reading

Posted in apocalypse, arts, dirty rotten scoundrels, down and out, humor, mainstream media, pop music | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

State of the Union ritual is deader than the Latin mass


I was telling Swamp Rabbit that Joe Biden dodged more issues than he addressed in his State of the Union speech this week. He sounded properly indignant about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but he didn’t seriously acknowledge the concerns that … Continue reading

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‘Retiring’ dirty energy is easier said than done


From The Uninhabitable Earth, the 2019 nonfiction bestseller by David Wallace-Wells that explains how climate change will turn the future into an ongoing catastrophe if we don’t drastically reduce carbon emissions: We are… billions of dollars and thousands of breakthroughs … Continue reading

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