Garrulus Grommeler

I like to write. I’ve always made this patently clear. I also like writers who write well, but what does “writing well” mean, actually? I recently left a comment at a writer’s blog in which, among other things, I mentioned why I don’t care for John Grisham’s writing. My comment was summarily deleted. Why? The context of my comment was this: one professional writer (not the owner of the blog to which I’m referring) noted that it’s common for readers, in online reviews of books, to criticize editors for writers’ work. This writer wrote a blog post addressing that point, saying that writers, not editors, are responsible for what appears in print. What follows is my comment in reply to that statement:  I’ll readily admit that I’ve done that before (but only in terms of what are obvious snafus and not because the book “sucks”), but it was also your blog entry, [name deleted], that later disabused me of that idea. I’ll even admit that one guy I like to pick on most (regardless of how we...

I'm wanting to buy myself an air purifier. Some, obviously, come with ionizers installed. Some of the reviews I've been reading are nothing less than pure idiocy, saying things like "This model has an ozone producing ionizer." If ionization produces ozone, then someone had bloody well better turn off all the fucking lightning storms around the planet! Good, strong lightning storms leave the air smelling and feeling clean and fresh because of the ionization caused by the lightning . There are too many ill-informed comments in reviews on air purifiers that contain ionizers. Your body ionizes the air you breathe, believe it or not, so the process called ionization can hardly be considered unhealthy. What is ionization ? It's a process whereby electrically neutral atoms are converted into electrically charged atoms by the removal or addition of electrons or other electrically charged ions. Admittedly, ionization is one means by which radiation is detected, but the ion...