Thrilled to be covered by the @AdirondackDaily, which is where I cut my teeth as a cub reporter 40 years ago. What a full-circle moment.

What cologne pairs well with the smell of BenGay? Asking for an (older) friend.

Check out christophermeleauthor's video! #TikTok tiktok.com/t/ZP8sHMMLw/

Fighting the biting buggers deep in the Adirondacks. chrismeleauthor.com

See you there!

A lot of people ask why Generation Jones insists on being its own thing. After all, we’re usually lumped in with the Boomers. The answer is simple. We may have been born during the Baby Boom, but we did not have the same formative experiences as the older Boomers, and we did not have the same upbringing as Gen X. We were the bridge generation. The oldest Boomers remember where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. Many of us do not. Kennedy was buried on my first birthday. They were old enough to remember the optimism of the early 1960s, the moon landing as teenagers, and the cultural revolutions as participants. Most of us arrived too late for that. Likewise, Gen X grew up with personal computers, video games, cable television, and a world that was already becoming digital. We didn’t. Generation Jones grew up in a world that was almost entirely analog. We used rotary phones. We looked things up in encyclopedias. We learned the Dewey Decimal System. We used card catalogs. We balanced checkbooks by hand. If you wanted directions, you unfolded a map. If you wanted to know something, you went to the library. If you missed your favorite television show, you missed it. There was no streaming service waiting for you. But unlike previous generations, we didn’t stay there. We had to adapt. We watched computers move from climate controlled rooms into offices and homes. We learned on mainframes and Wang systems. We used Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. We fed giant floppy disks into computers that had less computing power than today’s coffee maker. We learned email. Then the internet. Then cell phones. Then smartphones. Then social media. And now artificial intelligence. Most generations learn one world. Generation Jones learned several. That’s what makes us different. We are one of the last generations that remembers life before digital technology became part of every waking moment, but we were young enough to adapt and thrive as it arrived. We didn’t just witness the technological revolution. We had to reinvent ourselves to keep up with it. Every decade brought another transformation. Every decade required new skills. Every decade demanded adaptation. Perhaps that’s why so many Generation Jones people are independent, resilient, and skeptical of anyone claiming the world has always been the way it is now. We know better. We’ve lived through too many versions of it. Generation Jones isn’t defined by what we were born into. We’re defined by everything we had to learn along the way.

On this, the third anniversary of Dad's death, I quoted one of his frequent expressions. Miss you, Dad. From online: It looks like you are trying to say "che cazzo," a very common and vulgar Italian slang phrase that translates to "what the fuck?" or "what the hell?"

What a privilege and treat to be featured like this in one of my old papers. pressrepublican.com/news/for…

Turns out my Roman Empire was taking the subway today 🏛️🚇😂 I spotted these Roman centurions riding the train through Manhattan and had to follow them. Turns out they were heading to celebrate the first-ever National Pinsa Day, bringing a taste of Rome to NYC 🍕🇮🇹 Only in New York

My second novel has not yet been translated into Italian but here it is at Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Italy! Che meraviglia!

What’s on your shelf? chrismeleauthor.com

Ever wonder how books arrive on library shelves from distributors? @adeelnyt explains the pipeline: nytimes.com/card/2026/05/18/…

The 1965 TV series Lost in Space, had a cast that included the Robot B-9, and Dr. Zachary Smith. Dr. Smith is famous for hurling creative, alliterative insults at the Robot (often starting with “You…” or “Why you…”). To prepare you early for the anti-anti-Clanker movement it is proper to have some colorful metaphors handy. Here is the complete documented list of every name-calling insult Dr. Smith directs at the Robot across the series: •Addlepated Amateur •Addlepated Armor Bearer •Aluminum Canary •Animated Weather Station •Arrogant Automation •As Protective as a Leaky Umbrella •Assassin •Astigmatic Automation •Automated Oaf •Babbling Birdbrain •Babbling Bumpkin •Bellicose Bumpkin •Big Mouth •Blithering Blatherskite •Blithering Booby •Blithering Bumpkin •Bloated Blimp •Blundering Bag of Bolts •Booby •Bookmaking Booby •Broken-down Has-been •Brutish Product of the Mineral World •Bubble Brain / Bubblehead / Bubble-Headed Booby (by far the most common) •Bulbous Bumpkin •Bumbling Bag of Bolts •Bumbling Birdbrain •Bumbling Booby •Bumbling Bucket of Bolts •Bumbling Cracker Barrel •Bumptious Booby •Bumptious Braggart •Bungler •Bungling Incompetent •Cackling Cacophony •Cackling Canister •Cackling Clod •Cackling Cookoo •Cackling Coward •Cantankerous Clod •Cantankerous, Cold-Hearted Clod •Caterwauling Clod •Cautious Clump •Chattering Magpie •Clanking Clod •Clod •Clod-Like Collection of Condensors •Clumsy Clod •Clumsy Clump •Clumsy Cloot •Complete Moron •Computerized Clod •Computerized Clump •Confused Compass •Coward •Cowardly Clump •Cumbersome Clod •Cumbersome Clump •Cybernetic Simpleton •Cybernetic Skeptic •Defective Detective •Dehumanized Lie Dispenser •Demented Diode •Deplorable Dummy •Deplorable Dunderhead •Digitized Dunce •Dippity Dunce •Disreputable Dunce •Disreputable Dunderhead •Doddering Dunderhead •Elevator Operator •Evasive Coward •Ferrous Fraud •Garrulous Gargoyle •Infamous Informer •Insolent Hunk of Junk •Lame-brained Lump •Lugubrious Lump •Mumbling Mass of Metal •Nervous Ninny •Nickel-plated Nincompoop •Nincompoop •Ninny •Nondescript Ninny •Noxious Ninny •Obsolete Oaf •Obsolete Piece of Scrap Metal •Overcautious Concoction •Overgrown Ninny •Oversized Oaf •Parsimonious Puppet •Pathetic Pomposity •Pitiable Pipsqueak •Plasticized Parrot •Pompous Pipsqueak •Pot-Bellied Prankster •Pot-Bellied Pumpkin •Powered Prankster •Preening Popinjay •Presumptuous Pipsqueak •Presumptuous Popinjay •Pretentious Popinjay •Primitive Pile of Pistons •Proverbial Neanderthal Ninny •Puny Pipsqueak •Pusillanimous Pipsqueak •Pusillanimous Pinhead / Puppet •Ridiculous Robot •Silly Goose •Silly Old Ninny •Silly Sausage •Silly Sloth •Silver-Plated Sellout •Simple Simon •Snickering Cinderbox •Sorry Specimen of Computerhood •Steely-Eyed Sorcerer •Stupid Friend •Tarnished Trumpet •Tattletale •Terrified Mechanical Dunderhead •Tin Monster •Tin-Plated Fool / Fraud / Snitch / Tattletale / Traitor / Tyrant •Tintinnabulating Tin Can •Tiresome Thesaurus •Traitor •Traitorous Electronic Junk Pile •Traitorous Tintinnabulation •Traitorous, Tin-Plated Fugitive from a Junkyard •Traitorous, Transistorized Toad •Treasonous Tyrant •Unctuous Underling •Uncultured Clump •Ungrateful Underling •Ungrateful Wretch •Unspeakable Insult •Weakling •Worrywart •Worthless, Electronic Scrapheap •Wretch The frequently classics are: “Bubble-headed booby!”, “Garrulous gargoyle!”, “Tin-plated traitor!”, “Cowardly clump!”, “Babbling birdbrain!”, “Computerized clod!”, and “Primitive pile of pistons!”. Stand ready!

What a fun time leading this workshop! Thanks, @Pennwriters

Say what you want about online news, there is still something validating about seeing your story in print.

Another five-star review! Whoo-hoo! Get your copy today! tinyurl.com/3sk2hbxv