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It never concerned me that there were so many people smarter than I was, because I always knew I had just enough smarts to appreciate and enjoy this crazy world of ours. But when a machine demonstrates that it is smarter than I am, well now, that is disconcerting… Just
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Composing a pictorial essay to promote the performing artform of Chautauqua ain’t easy. But I’ve had the capable hand of Nevada author and all-around good guy, Michael Archer to help get it done, and we’re almost there… First we had to learn how to spell Chautauqua,
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Glancing back upon my 10 years of living on the Island of Maui, the best party I can remember was thrown by a Russian guy, Rodonovik. And here's how it came to be… The 1981 San Francisco 49ers made it to the Super Bowl, and I thought it
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I’ll never forget that 1988 call from Carol Piper Marshall, great granddaughter of John Piper, who gave us Piper’s Opera House… “McAvoy, I understand you’re portraying Mark Twain in the schools.” “Yes, Carol, I’m getting to see ten schools a week and loving it.” “Well, how
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In the merriest of experiments that we are calling, “Jimmy Buffett Meets Mark Twain on the Way to Heaven,” impressionist Darin Talbot and I are connecting dots between two of America’s most colorful characters. We decided to begin by selecting lyrics that might segue seamlessly, and just let time
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War was the problem solver of choice back when we settled our differences with battle axes, whereupon, with each and every advancement in weaponry, we got more wars. Even when disagreements between countries appeared to be solvable at the bargaining table, well, those disagreements oftentimes slipped off the bargaining table
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I wanna live on a houseboat with a dog, surrounded by lots of water and love. What could be more tranquil and ideal? I don’t know if statistics will bear me out, but I suspect nobody who has lived on a houseboat has ever started a fight with a
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Our small but powerful literary society, The Never Sweats, has a common bond, “Love of History and Love of Community,” and Mark Twain is our Patron Saint. So we are excited about the arrival of a splendiferous statue of Mark Twain on the 24th of July. There will be a
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I met Eglantine in 1964 aboard an ocean liner on my way to the Old World, we were both 21. Coincidentally we were also reading books of philosophy by Sarte, hers in French, mine in English, and her manner was so enchanting, well, I fell in love with her… At
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If there’s one kid I like the best here at The Lake of the Sky, it’s Darin Talbot, AKA Jimmy Buffett. Some adults are blessed by staying young, and that’s Darin. The fact that he is the spitting image of Jimmy Buffett, and can sing just like
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For 40 years I honored an imperative that every other book I picked up to read would be a non-Twain book. This little rule of mine kept me from going down the rabbit hole and not coming up. But now that I’m retired and contended in welcoming small
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There are powerful places here on Mother Earth that can attract and even create formidable interfaces. California produced gold, Nevada produced silver. California attracted Steinbeck, Nevada attracted Twain. And for Twain, his most powerful interface became the river, the raft and Jim. This powerful trio gave us Adventures of Huckleberry