Words For Your Wild, Carefree, Summer

by Kevin Burton    Summer has not arrived but planning for summer has. Our friends at Merriam-Webster have provided some words that may or may not describe your 2023 getaway(s).    Frankly, I would avoid some of these, but that’s up to you: Jaunty adjective: sprightly in manner or appearance.    When jaunty first came into English use …

“If You Could Read My Mind” Is A Masterpiece

by Kevin Burton    The greatest songwriters will leave room in their songs so you can climb in, look around and make yourself at home.    Just be careful, there is going to be a mirror in there in the place you least expect. You’re going to see yourself.  You’re going to be confronted. If …

Board Game Beatdown South Dakota Style

by Kevin Burton    My wife and I loved our South Dakota-Nebraska vacation last fall.  We really didn’t want to come home.    On the way home I kept a Nebraska station on the car radio well past the point where we could actually hear it well enough to recognize a song.     “Hey, if …

What Does It Take To Be A Screenwriter?

by Kevin Burton     Writer Lily Cooper, on the Grand Canyon University website, lists seven traits one needs to be a screenwriter.    Just about any kind of writing is interesting to me, so when my church offered a screenwriting class I jumped at the chance. I shared some of the details last Saturday (“My …

My Newest Venture: Screenwriting Class

by Kevin Burton    This is not exactly a call for people to get their popcorn ready, but I am now taking a screenwriting class.    If I’m not a fish out of water altogether, maybe I am a saltwater fish in freshwater. Or maybe I’m an old dog learning new tricks, to mix the …

More Words About Deep Thinking

by Kevin Burton    Last Friday I presented some of the words about thinking compiled by Merriam-Webster. Today I bring you the rest of their list.    Call this overthinking if you like. It wouldn’t be my first visit to that particular boulevard.     Whereas all the words I included Friday are useful, most of …

Up All Night And Original Thinking

by Kevin Burton    I’m sitting in the dark, on the couch my mom gave us. I hear the sound of a train in the distance.    There is romance, poetry in the sound.    I’m in the Man Cave and it couldn’t be mancavier. Two smallish beacons of light accompany the night without interrupting …

Saginaw USA, Why Not Exactly?

by Kevin Burton    I think I’ve found America kids! This after considerable searching. You’ll never guess where.    Listen to this:    “The Saginaw Valley Rail Trail is one of Saginaw County’s gems, stretching 11 miles from St. Charles to Saginaw. It incorporates a number of natural features including: seven bridges over various rivers …

The Bell Tolls For Olivia And For Me

by Kevin Burton    There is a picture of Olivia Newton-John that haunts me.    The picture is of her at the end of “Grease,” her character Sandy riding in the car with Danny, John Travolta’s character.  She turns around and waves at the camera as they ride off into the high school and movie …

Drift Away: The Healing Power Of Music

by Kevin Burton    Let me be clear: the beat, the rock and roll beat, does not free one’s soul.  But in the secular sense it sure frees something.     And that’s the heart of the great 1973 song “Drift Away.”    Lawrence Darrow Brown was born in Simonton, Texas on this day in 1940.  …