In my newspaper writing days at the Tampa Tribune, I once wrote a feature article about old movie serials, an inconsequential but fun piece of journalism. Unfortunately, the article was scheduled to appear on the front of the features section on Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001. A few days before that publication date, terrorists attacked the United States. By the time Sunday rolled around and the article appeared in all its derring-do splash, the country was not in the mood for somet

Adapted in part from the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV. By Ronnie Blair New York City began as New Amsterdam. Atlanta was originally called Terminus. San Francisco was Yerba Buena. Cities don’t always stick with the first names bestowed on them. My hometown, Cumberland, Kentucky, is a less famous example. Cumberland was founded in the 1830s with the uninspiring name Poor Fork, a case where geographic happenstance took p

This is an excerpt from the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV . By Ronnie Blair One Christmas, probably 1962, snow blanketed the hills and covered the narrow road leading to the house we rented. My sister, Shelia, and I peered out the windows at our personal wonderland, excited at the thought that Santa Claus would soon visit our tiny abode deep in the Kentucky mountains. Our younger brother, Ricky, was too young to grasp t

Over the last few years, the book website Shepherd.com has asked me to list my three favorite reads of the last year. Shepherd considers the year to be the final quarter of the previous year and the first three quarters of the current year. This is so these lists can be used as ideas for presents during the holiday season. I read more than 60 books during that time period, so narrowing it down to three is no easy task. You can read about the three books I chose and the reaso

What approaches can writers take so that a reader will recall our words long after time has dimmed the memory for everyone else? My latest guest essay for the Brevity Blog explores that question by revisiting two magazine articles I read as a child that have stuck with me for decades. Read the full essay here .

By Ronnie Blair The em dash would seem to be an innocent enough punctuation mark, doing its job without asking anything in return and...

By Ronnie Blair The 78-year-old juvenile novel stood out in the book dealer’s booth at the annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in St....

Designed by Freepik at https://www.freepik.com/ By Ronnie Blair Christmas in Florida is what you would expect. Air-conditioning systems...

This blog entry about my father, Ellison Blair, is an excerpt from the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books,...

The book website booklisti.com approached me about creating a recommended reading list of books that, preferably, were at least somewhat...

By Ronnie Blair In Dunedin, Florida, up a not so long and winding stairway, you will find Penny Lane: the Ultimate Beatles Museum , which...

An excerpt from the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV . By Ronnie Blair In 1966, my...

In my latest guest essay for Brevity Blog, I recall those astonishing days when I was a faithful letter writer to comic books. An...

By Ronnie Blair Artificial intelligence has been in the news a lot over the last couple of years, especially the AI known as ChatGPT....

By Ronnie Blair The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair always holds treasures, and a year ago on my annual pilgrimage there I uncovered one, a...

By Ronnie Blair Each morning in the 1960s my mother prepared Hershey’s cocoa for my sister, brother, and me, a ritual she religiously...

Lake Buena Vista, FL—The 2023 Annual Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Book Awards recognized Eisenhower Babies:...

By Ronnie Blair Authority Magazine recently interviewed me about the book that changed my life and other topics. Below is an excerpt from...

By Ronnie Blair TV watching can be educational––even 60 years after the fact. My habit of watching the television show Fury on Saturday...

By Ronnie Blair My family kept chickens in the mid-1960s. They laid eggs in a chicken coop in the barn behind our rental house in...