Articles by Dennis E. Powell

Dennis E. Powell is crackpot-at-large at Open for Business. Powell was a reporter in New York and elsewhere before moving to Ohio, where he has (mostly) recovered. You can reach him at dep@drippingwithirony.com.

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Jun 18, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: If Your Clocks are The View from Mudsock Heights: Flashing Half the Time, You Must Live in the Country

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:10 AM

The electrical distribution system has always been a mystery to me, but it is capable of becoming even more mysterious.

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Jun 10, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: It's Time Once Again to Do Something About the Wasp Nests

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 11:58 PM

It looks to me as if this is going to be a banner year for wasps. I’m no expert, but the population of paper wasps seemed higher the first few warm days than it was any time last year. And this year they seem kind of berserk.

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Jun 04, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: Booming Death from the Sky Does Have Its Aesthetic Charms

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 2:04 PM

One thing the flatlanders have on us is thunderstorms. Not that we don’t have them, but the hills keep us from enjoying them as much. And as a thing of beauty, a good, big, hot-day thunderstorm is without parallel.

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May 28, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: A Sad Anniversary Sparks a Brief History of the Last 40 Years or So

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 9:18 PM

My father died 42 years ago last week. The anniversary gave rise to various emotions — a little sadness, of course, though we’ve had time to get over it — but chiefly I thought about how much he has missed.

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May 22, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: Memorial Day Ought to be About More than Sales and Cookouts, and for Some, It Is

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 3:19 PM

Time was, Memorial Day was May 30, and it meant more than sales, cookouts, and “the unofficial beginning of summer.” To some, the old meaning remains.

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May 14, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: Remembering When One Flu Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Another, Serious Epidemic

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:39 AM

Some of us are old enough to remember it well. I barely remember it, but it was from a dangerous time anyway.

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Apr 30, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: The Annual Plant Infestation Begins and the Wild-Eyed Hordes Descend

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 4:24 AM

Just as soon as there’s even a hint that the last freeze has passed, out they come. There are swarms of them. They burrow into the ground. They descend upon plants, especially the biggest and healthiest specimens, until soon only the spindly, weak ones remain.

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Apr 24, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: With the Thaw, Unexpected Visitors Venture into the Countryside

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 5:29 AM

Out here in the woods, people seldom stop by unannounced. Every so often a logger will knock on the door to ask if it would be okay if he were to cut down my cherry, maple, and walnut trees. It wouldn’t. And sometimes there’s a surprise CARE package, so the mailman or the UPS guy will knock. If I’m not here, he’ll put the package on the back porch, where it’s safe from the elements. But beyond that, unexpected company is rare.

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Apr 16, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: A New Bug Going Around Has Me Pinin’ for an Evergreen

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 4:47 AM

There is a very unpleasant little bug going around. It’s like the flu or the bubonic plague or something. It causes fever, makes breathing a chore, and makes one abnormally stupid. And I’ve got it. Which means that this would be the perfect time to run the “evergreen” column in this space. What is an evergreen column? Well …

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Apr 10, 2009

The View from Mudsock Heights: A Happy Computer Reverie is Interrupted by a Low-Tech Malfunction

By Dennis E. Powell | Posted at 10:39 PM

Yeow! Why is it that hot coffee defies gravity and manages to escape the spout of the coffee pot and — sometimes actually flowing uphill — find its way onto the hand holding the cup, or the tablecloth, or the early morning bare feet?

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