Michael W. Harkins

August 1st, 1985

Stumbling Upon Memories I'll have the monthly(ish) Story and Pictures in another week or so, with all the usual Open Tabs, essays, and Photographs. But for today, which is also the date MTV premiered (1981), I share this stumbled upon recollection. Onward. I don’t have the

Just the (Fact) Checks

Here's the second of a two-fer for July. The D.C. turmoil just keeps rollin' along, but there are plenty of other orgs and people keeping us informed about all that. Woooo… what a world. The summer scorches along, and I had no idea of the ‘big’

Meanwhile...

A shorty until later this week! But first, Texas (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) I know what it feels like to be reunited with someone who didn’t know if you were alive or dead in a disaster. I know, because she told me what she went through emotionally and physically,

Summer!

Hey there. Summer’s coming up, although last week's +90 degrees made it feel like it’s here already. This issue starts with a special NPR piece first aired on this day twenty three years ago. From there we go to Open Tabs, Medical, Health and Science; then

Just. So. Much

Too much, and we ignore it at our peril, which is why I absorb as much as I can everyday. I refuse to be caught unawares. A friend of a friend reading the Story and Pictures zine recently liked the content, BUT, sent a message stating they didn’t want

An Open Letter to Lithuania

Thank you, for the respect and tribute you showed to four young American soldiers and, by extension, their families, and us. Thank you, for taking time to remind us that we are all people first, for  demonstrating that we are citizens of the world before we are citizens of nations,

Quick 23andMe bankruptcy follow-up

My long time friend, author, 'secret project' collaborator, and Los Angeles film industry exec Lorraine Evanoff has provided an easily accessible and informative link from NPR for how to delete 23andMe data (thanks Lorraine!): https://www.npr.org/2025/03/25/nx-s1-5339695/how-delete-23andme-data-bankruptcy

The 23andMe bankruptcy

Have you done a 23andMe thing? Considering doing something similar? Read on. In my saving-for-the-next Open Tabs feature I've been holding on to a March 6th New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) piece about the then-possible bankruptcy of 23andMe, which has now happened. The ramifications of this may

Aaaannnndddd...We're back

I’ve been away, literally and figuratively. The delays: First, it was a cold/flu virus. Got better, left the country for two weeks (previously scheduled, not to escape the paparazzi. Well, not this time). And upon my return… laptop coma. I was going to call it death, but I’

A reminder that you're not a f*cking Republican, Democrat, or Independent

You're a human being, and you can help I may still be feeling funky, but I have a house that rose out of the ashes, so I felt that I could at least do this (it's copied from my Substack). It shouldn’t take a horrible

This Time of Year

We just had Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming up. This issue's feature piece is a different kind of holiday reminiscence, but one that touches on something that many might be feeling as 2025 rolls in. Before that are a few Open Tabs, and we close with a very

The Season

Yep, it’s that time. No, not the one that comes around every four years, well, yeah, it is that time, but the ‘other’ time that happens every year, the one of brisk, windy days and beautiful colors. It just so happens that the other every four years thing is

When is becomes was

This post was supposed to be several things, but two days ago it had to become something else. Indulge me this personal digression and I'll return to normal programming soon. I appreciate your time. Dad is now a was. Was a bagpiper. One of the finest. It’s

Look up!

Well, go outside, make sure it’s safe (like, you’re not about to walk off a cliff or step into traffic), then look up, because it’s migration time. Birds are traveling south right now, populating the country’s four migration flyways. Below is a quick bit of info

Celebrating Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs became part of the aether on October 5th, 2011. To celebrate him, because dollars to donuts your daily life includes something he invented or revolutionized, my in-depth article, If Steve, Then Steph, is available for only $1.00 as an Amazon Kindle download from October 5th to October

Always catching up

Hey all, hope you’re well, safe, and have done something with your summer, even if it’s as pure yet time consuming as work around the house (‘work’ to be defined however you wish) or, on your Sunday, reading something for a couple of hours that you don’t

Random this, random that

I felt that after the previous Story and Pictures y’all might need a break from the really serious stuff, and summer feels like a good time to clean up and share my figurative stack of Open Tabs. There should be something of interest to everyone. I’ve included a

The dark, the light, the tunes, and dogs

This issue’s pieces range from dark to light. But there is also some smile stuff, a music tale, and Open Tabs. I’m going with the darks first and, frankly, they’re both serious darks, so if you read a few lines and think, “um, I don’t really

About the news, creative judges, and the song that won't stop

And now...clouds

Mountainous, massive, moving structures,. Hundreds of miles of mist and cotton balls float across the sky, their shadows float across the earth. They carry rivers in the sky, dump a continent’s worth of water, drop whirling winds that touch the ground and produce unstoppable, destructive messengers that remind us

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2024

Starts

A tale or two about Michael Jackson, and a Jimmy Buffet tribute

Veterans

To veterans everywhere

Part 2 -- Here We Go!, The Old Waldorf shows of '77, Steve Perry's reveal, and the week I'll never forget.

Part 2 of a spur of the moment cross country road trip to San Francisco in 1977, Journey playing a three-night gig in SF and showcasing 'new' singer Steve Perry, hanging with the band, and how it all changed my life. From a journal that shouldn't still exist!

I hope you never become a member of this club, and an essay about recovery

A break before I post Part 2 of the Journey journal tale, which goes up later this week. October 9th. Is it maudlin to observe this 'anniversary'? I have this internal push and pull every year about it, and we were talking with friends very recently about how