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HOW TO WRITE, WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT

January 2, 2026 by David Gillaspie

How to write seems self-explanatory. Why bother is the real question. My Grandma on my Mom’s side passed this pearl of wisdom along: “Smart people talk about ideas, normal people talk about places, dumb people talk about other people.” With that mind, who are the big gossips in your group?

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, autobiographical blogger, autobiography, biography, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, boomers, education, family, history, learning, millennials, Oregon Ducks, Portland Oregon, proust, sports, story, Thomas Wolfe, wife, write about, writer, writer heaven, writers, writing

NEW YEARS DAY WITH OREGON DUCKS

January 1, 2026 by David Gillaspie

My thanks go to the Oregon Ducks on New Years Day. Because of this college football team I watched three games in a row. With my wife. First, we talked:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, big-10, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, college football, Eugene, family, football, Georgia, go ducks, history, Indiana, MARRIAGE, Miami, millennials, ole miss, OOOOO, Oregon Ducks, SEC, sports, story, writer, writers, writing

2025 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR, SO FAR

December 31, 2025 by David Gillaspie

2025 highlights have come every day, with each new one besting the last. And, like last year, 2024, it’s come to this. The End. Also like last year, and the years before, tomorrow is a: New Beginning. Let’s say it together. New. Beginning.

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: 2025, 2025 highlights, baby boomer, better than that, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, cheers, education, facebook, family, famous people, fiction writer, fitness, football, highlights, historical figures, history, LFG, millennials, music, new beginning, North Bend, Oregon Ducks, playing guitar, Social media, sports, story, the end, wife, writer, writers, writing

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY DOES THE WORK OF TWO

December 30, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The entertainment industry is where you go with time to kill and you don’t workout. Pick up a book, a screen, go to a play. The last one, go to a play, is different because now you have to make plans for your anticipated spare time, which means scheduling, which is another word for work. […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, crime, education, entertainment industry, family, fate, government services, history, learning, leisure time, Love, MARRIAGE, married, millennials, Portland Oregon, prison, punishment, spare time, story, travel, watergate, wife, writer, writers, writing

CONSISTENCY OVER TIME FOR THE WIN

December 29, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Consistency over time is not over-rated. Not under-rated either; some people call it a life-style. Others call it a habit of boring people. Well, if the name fits . . .

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: atiyeh's, big joke, blogger, boomer blogger, boomers, consistency, couch, dead drunk, different scene, dog, education, family, guitars, history, improvement, kids, learning, Love, MARRIAGE, married, music, OVER TIME, rug, song, story, travel, under promise, vodka, wife, writer, writers, writing

GENTLE SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD TIMES

December 28, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Who doesn’t make gentle suggestions? Call it good manners if you know the difference between a request and an order. ‘Would you please help me?’ instead of, ‘Get over here and make yourself useful.’ This happened recently:

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: American President, anguish, Baby Boomer blogger, berlin, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, Cold War, control, current times, Eastern Europe, education, family, follow through, gentle suggestions, good manners, history, iron curtain, john kennedy, life in order, Love, manners, MARRIAGE, misunderstood, politics, request, revolution, Russia, sensitive, sex, Soviet Union, stalin, story, suggestions, travel, wife, writer, writers, writing

COLD WAR HISTORY FOR BABY BOOMER BEGINNERS

December 27, 2025 by David Gillaspie

The Cold War? Even the name sounds dismissive. Are today’s students reading it and thinking, ‘No one got killed like a Hot War so what’s the big deal? Wasn’t it more peaceful after WWII?’ I know I did. But history isn’t about picking and choosing, hunting and pecking. It’s about the slow roll of time […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, American, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Cold War, David day, education, gulag, historical access, historical relevance, history, iron curtain, learning, library of congress, loyal, loyalty, relevance, Russia, Soviet Union, stalin, story, USA, war, writer, writers, writing

GET TO THE WRITING POINT

December 26, 2025 by David Gillaspie

People who feel like their head might explode in the middle of the night because their brain won’t calm down need to get to the writing point. No writer has ever felt the internal pressure in their mind because they’ve already gone over things. Gone over, and over, and over, and over. Let me rewrite […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomer blogger, boomer blogger, boomer kids, boomerpdx, fiction, new yorker, non-writers, opinion, over and over, Portland, Portland Oregon, public education, revision, rewrite, sentence structure, shared history, story, surveillance, teachers, writer, writer's worth, writers, writing, writing point, written memory, WWII

HOW TO GROW A SENSE OF WONDER IN PORTLAND OREGON

December 22, 2025 by David Gillaspie

Most of the time a sense of wonder in Portland means a painful memory from the days of old, of Meier and Frank downtown and the Georgian Room for tea. The place had a special aura during the holidays. The painful part? It hasn’t been there for years, Meier and Frank and the Georgian Room, […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: baby boomer, Baby Boomers, blog, blogger, boomer blogger, boomerpdx, Christmas, december, education, football, georgian room, history, hustle, married, Meier and Frank, Oregon, Oregon Ducks, painful memory, Portland, Portland Oregon, sports, story, streets, travel, urban, urban canyons, writer, writers, writing

UNCHECKED SPEECH, GUARDED WORDS

December 18, 2025 by David Gillaspie

If you’ve heard unchecked speech, then you know guarded words when someone says them. One might be a raving crack-head angling for another piece of the rock. The other might be a priest in a confessional. Each has their place, sometimes more than one place. There’s only one problem: If they switch back and forth […]

Filed Under: What's Up Tagged With: America, art museum, Baby Boomer blogger, Baby Boomers, blog, blog post, blogger, boomerpdx, booze, despair, drinking, drunk, education, family, family tree, guarded words, history, history museum, homeless, I love you, learning, Love, married, MOVING ON, old guy, old man, Oregon, speech, story, street people, unchecked speech, weight of loss, writer, writers, writing