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Just Beauties
Some linguists think the Genesis verse “fill the earth and subdue it” should be “fill the earth and revere it;” six days ago I saw it...

William I. Atkinson
Apr 11, 2021


The Mindful Driver
We have our motives and justifications, we pleasure drivers. For one thing, we are counselled to be mindful, lest the minutiae of life...

William I. Atkinson
Jan 28, 2021


The Sprites of Bonebreak Stair
There’s a low rail on the upper steps, no handgrip at all on the lower. Bonebreak Stair I call it, and hope that it doesn’t live up to its n

William I. Atkinson
Jan 12, 2021


Am I Not a Man?
CanLit authors – and many are staggeringly talented, just wasting their talents in a doomed cause – might address the issues and conditions

William I. Atkinson
Jan 5, 2021


A Terror in Tuscany
My purpose however is not to document such pleasures, but to reveal a profound horror that lurks behind Tuscany’s sublime façade.

William I. Atkinson
Nov 29, 2020


Tick Talk: the Time Display as Oracle
The oracles don’t end there. Sleep in, and you suddenly see it’s 7:07 and you should have been in the shower half an hour ago. LOL indeed!

William I. Atkinson
Nov 1, 2020


An American in Calgary
Full disclosure: I’m an American, born in Seattle – dad a US naval officer, mom the daughter of a Canadian banker.

William I. Atkinson
Mar 3, 2020


A Murder of Crows
No doubt about it, the corvids - crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, and jays - can be a nasty bunch. Ravens have been seen in Yellowstone Park,

William I. Atkinson
Feb 17, 2020


My House is Not Your House. In Fact, It's Not Even My House.
My dog is not my possession, said the letter. He is my equal and my friend. I have no moral or ethical rights over him.

William I. Atkinson
Jan 15, 2020


Hold the Knife: Rethinking Organ Donation
It is for this reason, that I do not authorize any authority anywhere to take my organs in the event of what appears to be my death.

William I. Atkinson
Dec 13, 2019


End the Architectural Brutality. Please.
I have long experienced these buildings at close quarters. And my response is: Tear the damned things down.

William I. Atkinson
Dec 2, 2019


Literacy x2
Hi all, and welcome to my new website. Here's some background: I loved SF as a kid, "but when I became a man, I put away childish...

William I. Atkinson
Oct 10, 2019


A Disciplined Imagination: the Fiction of Science Fiction
Over the years, too, the odds of accidental death steadily accumulate. I grew up watching Loony Tunes, and know that somewhere out there ...

William I. Atkinson
Oct 1, 2019


Notes From a Grammar Werewolf
My middle son coined this term for me when he was seventeen: Once a month, he says, I lift my snout to the full moon and howl whommmm!

William I. Atkinson
Sep 24, 2019


Please Stand for the Stufessor
I was wondering how I could possibly go from semi-retirement to tackling all this when the phone rang.

William I. Atkinson
Apr 15, 2011


On Being Proud-Ass!
Grammar rules are like another kind of prescriptive law: The criminal code. Both are useful to consult to avoid errors, or to diagnose...

William I. Atkinson
Dec 19, 2010


Rules Are Made to be Broken
There are two main ways of looking at English. You can be prescriptive, setting and enforcing strict rules of speech.

William I. Atkinson
Dec 6, 2010
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