Take a close look at that aluminum can the next time you have a pop--or a soda or a soda pop, depending on where you are when you're drink it. I hope you like it, because, according to my good friend Google, that aluminum can will still be around for the next 200-400 years. Your steel cans will last from 200-500 years, though I don't think you should wait that long to eat your tuna and your green beans.

It’s sobering to think that our great, great, great, grandchildren won't even know who… Continue

"I'm getting tired of all the sloppy grammar people use these days," lamented Karl, my friend and part-time curmudgeon.



What are you thinking about?



"That," he said, gesturing at my face wildly.



I still don't know what you're talking about, I said. That's some grouchy mood you're in.



"Gaah! You're killing me, Kid!" I knew what he was talking about. I just couldn't resist. "Don't end your sentences with a preposition," he said.



Fine. That's… Continue

There is this tree on the boulevard in front of my house. It is going to fall. The city doesn’t think so but the general consensus in the neighborhood is that it will and when it does it will fall on my

house. It has been ripping apart for the last couple of years and now

the squirrels have made a home in the trunk. When the ground thaws and

the leaves come out it will fall. This will be the fourth boulevard

tree on this block that has fallen since I moved here three…

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Do you talk dirty to your spouse, significant other or FWB (friend with benefits)? Is it something you both like to do or is one of you more into it?

I ask because when not expected it can throw the whole thing.

Years ago I was with this guy, a friend I had known for decades. A platonic friendship mainly, because we were both always involved with other people. But there was an attraction. Anyway, we went out one

night, both of us finally single…

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Writing is a psychologically dangerous profession. We writers tend to be insecure anyway, which is why we choose such an isolated activity. But we open ourselves up to criticism and rejection whenever we let other people read our stuff. We send it out to be evaluated, judged, and deemed "suitable for publication" by people who believe they're qualified to do so.



These people are called editors. We writers have more. . . colorful names for them.



The problem is that writers… Continue

Week 2 of 2010 Winter Olympics Swish-Whack Awards

Erik Deckers

Laughing Stalk syndicate

Copyright 2010



It's week two of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and I'm giving a second round of Swish-Whack, Take That awards. I created the awards in 2004 to honor America's Mariel Zagunis, who won America's first fencing gold medal in 100 years.



The problem was NBC did such a crappy job of covering Zagunis' historic prize, they only spent 30 seconds on… Continue

The 2010 Winter Olympics Swish-Whack Take That! Awards

Erik Deckers Laughing Stalk syndicate

Copyright 2010



I created the Swish-Whack awards during the 2004 Athens Olympics, to shine some light on the sport of fencing, after America's Mariel Zagunis, 19, won America's first fencing gold medal in 100 years.



Even back then, NBC's coverage of the Olympics was so awful, they only showed… Continue

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It all started when a UFO from the Planet Tequila landed along the Appalachian Trail last Father’s Day weekend. It held Governor Sanford hostage for four days…

There once was a promising career.

Shot to hell with a fib and cold beer.

The story? Appalachian Trail.

But really? Buenos Aires quail,

campaign staffers: “save old buccaneer!”

Media insiders are speculating that ABC’s Lost…

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