Above is a picture I took yesterday of a little cluster of mushrooms I discovered on a pile of mulch in our yard.

Below are a few Internet links from the last couple of weeks. Highlights include why creative people are eccentric, six exercise machines to avoid, word of a new Sherlock Holmes story …

There seem to be as many books about how to write as there are actual writers, yet Anne Lamott makes a solid if not altogether inspiring contribution to the collection. Also known for her non-fiction books dealing with depression, Christianity, and alcoholism, in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on …

Some of us love stories that leave us listening fearfully for shuffling footsteps in the dark, or movies that make us spray our popcorn about the room when the bogeyman leaps from the shadows, on reflection, we may wonder just what it is about scary stories that causes such fearful reactions. Those …