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Nights Before Christmas and a Missing Johnny Seven
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
Dec 21, 20254 min read


A Look at Books That Captivated Me the Most in 2025
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
Nov 8, 20251 min read


Writing That Endures
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 .
Oct 18, 20251 min read


Em Dashes and Other False AI Clues
By Ronnie Blair The em dash would seem to be an innocent enough punctuation mark, doing its job without asking anything in return and...
Jul 12, 20253 min read


Tom Mix, a Book Fair, and the Incredible Thing That Happened
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....
May 26, 20253 min read


The Year Florida Forgot How It Does Christmas
Designed by Freepik at https://www.freepik.com/ By Ronnie Blair Christmas in Florida is what you would expect. Air-conditioning systems...
Dec 22, 20244 min read


My Father and the Day Pearl Harbor Was Attacked
This blog entry about my father, Ellison Blair, is an excerpt from the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books,...
Dec 7, 20244 min read


Lessons Learned from the Lives of Others
The book website booklisti.com approached me about creating a recommended reading list of books that, preferably, were at least somewhat...
Nov 30, 20241 min read


Visitors Return to Yesterday at Beatles Museum
By Ronnie Blair In Dunedin, Florida, up a not so long and winding stairway, you will find Penny Lane: the Ultimate Beatles Museum , which...
Nov 4, 20242 min read


Space Ghost Goes Trick-or-Treating
An excerpt from the memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV . By Ronnie Blair In 1966, my...
Oct 20, 20242 min read


Faster Than a Speeding Adverb
In my latest guest essay for Brevity Blog, I recall those astonishing days when I was a faithful letter writer to comic books. An...
Jun 21, 20241 min read


ChatGPT Reads 'Eisenhower Babies' and Has Some Thoughts
By Ronnie Blair Artificial intelligence has been in the news a lot over the last couple of years, especially the AI known as ChatGPT....
May 11, 20245 min read


Obscure Authors, Personal Connections, and the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair
By Ronnie Blair The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair always holds treasures, and a year ago on my annual pilgrimage there I uncovered one, a...
Feb 5, 20244 min read


My Mother, One Century Later
By Ronnie Blair Each morning in the 1960s my mother prepared Hershey’s cocoa for my sister, brother, and me, a ritual she religiously...
Oct 19, 20235 min read


'Eisenhower Babies' Receives National Recognition
Lake Buena Vista, FL—The 2023 Annual Florida Authors and Publishers Association President’s Book Awards recognized Eisenhower Babies:...
Aug 20, 20232 min read


How a Hardy Boys Mystery Changed My Life
By Ronnie Blair Authority Magazine recently interviewed me about the book that changed my life and other topics. Below is an excerpt from...
Jun 24, 20233 min read


Fury, Wild Horse Annie, and a Delayed History Lesson
By Ronnie Blair TV watching can be educational––even 60 years after the fact. My habit of watching the television show Fury on Saturday...
May 21, 20234 min read


I (Fail To) Capture the Chickens
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...
May 6, 20233 min read


Discovering 'The Harlan Renaissance' and a Different Take on Appalachian Coal Towns
By Ronnie Blair When I began writing my memoir Eisenhower Babies: Growing Up on Moonshots, Comic Books, and Black-and-White TV, one of my...
Apr 8, 20235 min read


Peter Pan, Queen Elizabeth, and Other Book Fair Encounters
By Ronnie Blair Step into the annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Petersburg and you enter a time portal for bibliophiles. On...
Feb 19, 20233 min read
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