Category Archives: Personal history

Packing Books

Posted on Saturday 17 January 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I have begun packing my books, in anticipation of our move from LA to the Bay Area. We are in the final week of escrow on a new home in the Oakland Hills (about 5 miles south of the Locus … Continue reading →

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Inherit the Wind

Posted on Sunday 23 November 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Saw the movie INHERIT THE WIND today for the first time in many years. This is the 1960 film version of the 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, as directed by Stanley Kramer, about the famous 1925 … Continue reading →

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Weekend in Oakland

Posted on Tuesday 4 November 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Back from another weekend in the Bay Area, looking at potential new homes and hanging out — dinner at The Terrace Room on Lake Merritt, in downtown Oakland, Friday evening after I flew up; a nice dinner with unexpected entertainment, … Continue reading →

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Journey to the Beginning of Time

Posted on Monday 27 October 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I got two responses to my query late last week on Facebook about a film I’d seen in the mid-1960s and only vaguely remembered, a film about boys in a rowboat going back in time — responses from Alan P … Continue reading →

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We’ll ride on the rain… we’ll worship the wind

Posted on Sunday 6 July 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

We watched Pedro Almodovar’s Law of Desire the other night, a 1987 film possibly set earlier, since there is a scene in which a famous 1960s pop song, “If You Go Away”, is sung [in Spanish] to a stage performance. … Continue reading →

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Clarke, Childhood’s End, part 2 – themes

Posted on Friday 6 June 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Last week I started my discussion of re-reading several classic Arthur C. Clarke novels, and summarized the plot of Childhood’s End, in this post. Now some comments on themes. My purpose in these rereadings is not to explore the history … Continue reading →

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Clarke, Childhood’s End, part 1

Posted on Saturday 31 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I have been re-reading several classic novels by Arthur C. Clarke, published in the 1950s and ‘60s, because they were books that I read in my formative years (i.e. ages 13 to 15), and so influenced my early thinking and … Continue reading →

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Kalam, Infinities, and Intellectual Honesty

Posted on Friday 30 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I was glancing around Adam Lee’s website and noticed his archive of foundational essays (some of which have been partially incorporated into his book). One is a very long, detailed response to the traditional arguments for the existence of God. … Continue reading →

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My Sect Is Right and Yours Is Wrong — Obviously

Posted on Friday 23 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

This Skepticblog post has a review of a book called God Bless America: Strange and Unusual Religious Beliefs and Practices in the United States by Dr Karen Stollznow, has this opening passage: When I grew up in the Presbyterian Church, … Continue reading →

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Thoughts about Family Pics

Posted on Friday 23 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

In the past couple weeks I’ve been looking through metal boxes and plastic carousels and mail order packages of the slides I inherited from my father 10 years ago, and have the following thoughts. In my father’s days — and … Continue reading →