Experiencing the Beauty and History of Cappadocia, Turkey

My girlfriend Jen and I are back home, but our hearts are still in Turkey. As I sit at my computer post-processing photos from Cappadocia, I still can't quite get my head around the magic and immense beauty from that region surrounding the town of Goreme. Not only was there natural beauty, but also signs of ancient history everywhere we looked. On our first morning there, we saw Cappadocia from the air - a glorious early-morning balloon ride.

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Charles Glenn Continues to Earn the Spotlight

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently featured this article on Charles Glenn, best known these days for singing the national anthem a cappella at Blues games. He has a strong clear voice even now, in his early 60's. I applaud his successes for many reasons. He is genuinely an upbeat generous man, a dedicated dad with a wonderful sense of humor and unrelenting creativity. Back in the 1970s, when we were mere teenagers, Charles and I were co-leaders of the 8-piece St. Louis jazz-rock band "Ego." I was the guitarist and Charles was lead singer (of course), which he excelled at while playing a full set of drums. I'm really proud of what we accomplished. And I continue to celebrate Charles Glenn's many successes. [caption id="attachment_28180" align="aligncenter" width="602"] Ego, Circa 1974[/caption]

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On the stealing of jokes and cryptomnesia

What is a trope? The website TV Tropes explains:

A trope is a storytelling device or convention, a shortcut for describing situations the storyteller can reasonably assume the audience will recognize. Tropes are the means by which a story is told by anyone who has a story to tell.
How often have you watched a new movie or TV show and noticed that it is drenched in tropes? I notice this constantly. TV shows and movies resemble other movies and shows so often that some have written, tongue in cheek, that there are actually only an extremely limited number of plots. Are there only seven plots? Are there only six plots? [More . . . ]

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