{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"Fredometer","home_page_url":"https://fredometer.com","description":"Fredometer","author":{"name":"Fredometer"},"items":[{"id":"the-architecture-of-distance","html_content":"

Houston, We Have a Problem — And It’s Not Us

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-architecture-of-distance","title":"The Architecture of Distance","date_modified":"2026-04-13T03:59:42Z"},{"id":"the-long-life-of-a-small-gesture","html_content":"

In the summer of 1979, my parents went to see Jerry Lee Lewis at the Palomino in North Hollywood. It was my mother’s birthday weekend, and they were excited to have a night out together. Hoyt Axton was playing with Lewis...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-long-life-of-a-small-gesture","title":"The Long Life of a Small Gesture","date_modified":"2026-04-01T12:00:00Z"},{"id":"what-i-needed-what-i-know","html_content":"

By the time my parents began to lose themselves—first in small ways, then in ways that could not be ignored—I was already bracing for something I didn’t yet have the language for. There were doctors, attorneys, conversat...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/what-i-needed-what-i-know","title":"What I Needed, What I Know","date_modified":"2026-03-31T23:28:56Z"},{"id":"when-the-train-came-to-ventura-boulevard","html_content":"

One afternoon sometime around 1980, I was sitting on my bicycle along Ventura Boulevard in Studio City watching something strange unfold. A crane towered over a small parcel of land near the sidewalk, and a crowd had gat...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/when-the-train-came-to-ventura-boulevard","title":"When the Train Came to Ventura Boulevard","date_modified":"2026-03-08T12:00:00Z"},{"id":"the-intersection-at-scaroni-and-lerdo","html_content":"

One of the jobs I’ve been doing takes me up through the community of Shafter. I avoid the town because the state route through it gets caught at several long traffic lights. Instead, I take two agricultural roads that be...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-intersection-at-scaroni-and-lerdo","title":"The Intersection at Scaroni and Lerdo","date_modified":"2026-03-06T05:15:13Z"},{"id":"macmost-calm-clear-help-for-apple-users","html_content":"

Over the years I’ve bookmarked a lot of tech tutorials, but very few stick. One channel I keep coming back to is MacMost, a YouTube channel dedicated to clear, practical “how-to” videos for Apple users.

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/macmost-calm-clear-help-for-apple-users","title":"MacMost: Calm, Clear Help for Apple Users","date_modified":"2025-12-28T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"no-reverse-gear","html_content":"

Sabrina Carpenter’s latest hit, “Manchild,” comes with a delightfully whimsical video. Rather than following the familiar pattern of staged scenes broken up by performance shots, the video moves forward as one continuous...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/no-reverse-gear","title":"No Reverse Gear","date_modified":"2025-12-27T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"a-wander-through-my-bookshelves","html_content":"

I thought it might be interesting to put together a list of the books I’ve read over the past few years—roughly from 2020 through the end of 2025. This isn’t meant as any kind of endorsement or résumé, just a snapshot of...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/a-wander-through-my-bookshelves","title":"A Wander Through My Bookshelves","date_modified":"2025-12-26T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"a-two-dog-afternoon-with-poor-charlie%E2%80%99s-almanack","html_content":"

Yesterday afternoon I found myself in the perfect spot: curled up on my sofa with a lamp illuminating the pages of a book I was finishing, my two dogs sleeping against me, and the fireplace radiating its warm glow across...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/a-two-dog-afternoon-with-poor-charlie%E2%80%99s-almanack","title":"A Two-Dog Afternoon with Poor Charlie’s Almanack","date_modified":"2025-12-22T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"when-the-street-held-its-breath","html_content":"

I was at the Santa Monica Promenade on a warm Saturday not too long ago. For those who aren’t from Southern California, the Promenade is an outdoor shopping area created by closing off one of the streets near the ocean. ...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/when-the-street-held-its-breath","title":"When the Street Held Its Breath","date_modified":"2025-12-21T21:53:50Z"},{"id":"how-the-sound-of-thriller-was-built","html_content":"

For any of you who are musically inclined—or who love songs from the 1980s—I stumbled tonight upon a YouTube channel where the host has posted a series of interviews with musicians, some of whom played on Michael Jackson...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/how-the-sound-of-thriller-was-built","title":"How the Sound of Thriller Was Built","date_modified":"2025-12-20T09:56:24Z"},{"id":"holiday-cake-and-the-colander","html_content":"

This isn’t a clinical essay or a professional explanation. It’s simply a set of observations drawn from daily work — the kind that accumulate quietly when you spend time in a room, watch carefully, and try to understand ...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/holiday-cake-and-the-colander","title":"Holiday Cake and the Colander ","date_modified":"2025-12-17T04:19:21Z"},{"id":"a-modest-proposal-for-saving-english-from-itself","html_content":"

The English language is full of those sneaky little words that wear the same outfit but behave completely differently depending on context. You know the usual suspects:

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/a-modest-proposal-for-saving-english-from-itself","title":"A Modest Proposal for Saving English From Itself","date_modified":"2025-11-30T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"nicholas-canyon","html_content":"

This memory has stayed with me for decades—part childhood adventure, part tribute to the people who shaped those early years. I offer it now as a small way of keeping them close.

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/nicholas-canyon","title":"Nicholas Canyon","date_modified":"2025-11-29T12:00:00Z"},{"id":"fifty-years-later","html_content":"

I wrote this piece after an unexpected visit to my childhood home stirred emotions I hadn't prepared for. Memory can be startling in its vividness—kindness, fear, humor, grief, all returning at once. What follows is a si...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/fifty-years-later","title":"Fifty Years Later","date_modified":"2025-11-29T00:45:46Z"},{"id":"finding-arnold-a-visit-to-joe-gold%E2%80%99s-secret-world-gym","html_content":"

Long before GPS and Google Maps, finding a gym sometimes felt like uncovering a secret. One day, my friend and I tracked down the almost invisible upstairs space where Arnold Schwarzenegger was training—Joe Gold’s quiet ...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/finding-arnold-a-visit-to-joe-gold%E2%80%99s-secret-world-gym","title":"Finding Arnold: A Visit to Joe Gold’s Secret World Gym","date_modified":"2025-11-16T20:00:00Z"},{"id":"a-late-lesson-in-motion","html_content":"

There’s a moment, years after leaving a place you once belonged, when you finally understand what it was trying to teach you. This is about that realization — how walking away from the work I loved eventually led me back...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/a-late-lesson-in-motion","title":"A Late Lesson in Motion","date_modified":"2025-11-16T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"linguistic-time-capsules","html_content":"

Tracing forgotten sounds, Southern survivals, and a few beautiful misunderstandings.

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/linguistic-time-capsules","title":"Linguistic Time Capsules:","date_modified":"2025-11-15T10:00:00Z"},{"id":"%E2%80%9Cwait%E2%80%A6-you-know-michael-milken%E2%80%9D","html_content":"

In the late ’80s, I was working at a group home through The Help Group/Project Six—helping kids who’d had it rough. I never expected to repeatedly cross paths with one of the most powerful men in finance, but there he wa...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/%E2%80%9Cwait%E2%80%A6-you-know-michael-milken%E2%80%9D","title":"“Wait… You Know Michael Milken?”","date_modified":"2025-11-11T19:48:41Z"},{"id":"wild-warm-splashy-summers-in-studio-city-1975%E2%80%931978","html_content":"

This entry is about the summers between 1975 and 1978—fifth through eighth grade—because they all felt cut from the same cloth. I’ll land on 1977 as the centerpoint, mostly because of one event: the release of Star Wars....

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/wild-warm-splashy-summers-in-studio-city-1975%E2%80%931978","title":"Wild, Warm, Splashy Summers in Studio City (1975–1978)","date_modified":"2025-10-19T00:30:25Z"},{"id":"identity-by-era","html_content":"

I started thinking about eras and decades last night as I was going to sleep. It all began with a lyric from The Who’s song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”:

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/identity-by-era","title":"Identity By Era","date_modified":"2025-08-31T17:29:07Z"},{"id":"the-charlie-rich-dilemma","html_content":"

About four years ago, I woke up one morning to my local oldies country music station, KCWR, playing softly in the background. A song came on that I had never heard before. I immediately liked the sound—the 1970s-style gu...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-charlie-rich-dilemma","title":"The Charlie Rich Dilemma","date_modified":"2025-08-26T08:00:00Z"},{"id":"the-ends-of-the-world---a-book-discussion","html_content":"

About a year ago, a friend gifted me a book titled \"The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions,\" by Peter Brannen. With so many books already sta...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-ends-of-the-world---a-book-discussion","title":"The Ends Of The World - A Book Discussion","date_modified":"2025-06-27T21:00:00Z"},{"id":"boy-meets-world---fred-meets-disney","html_content":"

I’ve been doing some work for a company with some really nice employees. One of them, as I found out, is a big fan of Boy Meets World—the television show from the mid-1990s. He asked me a number of questions about the sh...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/boy-meets-world---fred-meets-disney","title":"Boy Meets World - Fred Meets Disney","date_modified":"2025-04-22T02:00:00Z"},{"id":"ai-assistance-with-cold-cases","html_content":"

This is just a hunch, but it seems to me that Artificial Intelligence could be an invaluable tool in solving cold cases. It’s not uncommon when watching shows like Dateline to hear that a cold case was solved because a n...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/ai-assistance-with-cold-cases","title":"A.I. Assistance With Cold Cases","date_modified":"2025-03-24T17:00:00Z"},{"id":"hot-dog-bun-miscount","html_content":"

We grill hot dogs for lunch once a week or so. It used to be that hot dogs were sold in packs of ten, and buns in packs of eight. This meant that to have an even number of buns for the dogs, you’d have to find a common d...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/hot-dog-bun-miscount","title":"Hot Dog Bun Miscount","date_modified":"2025-03-23T01:00:00Z"},{"id":"my-ping-pong-ball-analogy","html_content":"

I was thinking about the incredibly vast distances between objects in space and came up with an analogy. Let’s imagine the Earth as the size of a ping pong ball. At that scale, how far would the Moon be from Earth? The a...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/my-ping-pong-ball-analogy","title":"Ping Pong Ball Sized Sun","date_modified":"2025-03-21T19:00:00Z"},{"id":"death-at-the-speed-of-light","html_content":"

I have been thinking about an idea for the past few months with regard to the death of living things. I think the thought was triggered when we lost our beloved dog Susie a couple of years back, but I hadn’t really formu...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/death-at-the-speed-of-light","title":"Death Into The Speed Of Light","date_modified":"2025-02-25T19:00:00Z"},{"id":"the-look-of-love","html_content":"

I found this amazing live performance of “The Look Of Love” performed by Burt Bacharach and Ronald Isley. It’s done in a slow tempo’d jazzy latin beat. I really love how Bacharach emphasizes the various descending modula...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-look-of-love","title":"The Look Of Love","date_modified":"2025-02-19T21:00:00Z"},{"id":"the-business-mans-comic","html_content":"

I have this theory that there is a category of comic that many people enjoy. I know I do. It’s what I will call the business man comic. These comics are also usually straight-man comics. I am not referring to their sexua...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-business-mans-comic","title":"The Business Man's Comic","date_modified":"2025-02-16T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"jimmy-webb---rick-beatos-interview","html_content":"

So folks, I love Jimmy Webb's songs. He has written so many. My favorite is, \"Wichita Lineman.\" He wrote, \"By The Time You Get To Phoenix,\" \"Galveston,\" \"Up, Up, And Away,\" as well. I am so glad that someone did an h...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/jimmy-webb---rick-beatos-interview","title":"Jimmy Webb - Rick Beato's Interview","date_modified":"2025-01-05T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"my-scrabble-sting","html_content":"

One of my favorite stories to recount is one involving a specific game of Scrabble. In fact, Brenda and I were just laughing about it last night as something on Wheel of Fortune reminded me of it.

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/my-scrabble-sting","title":"The Scrabble Sting","date_modified":"2025-01-05T01:00:00Z"},{"id":"the-carpenters---rick-beato","html_content":"

If you like The Carpenters, this is a nice live-stream that Rick Beato did about their music at this link. \"What Is The Carpenters Greatest Song?\"

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-carpenters---rick-beato","title":"The Carpenters - Rick Beato","date_modified":"2025-01-03T07:47:06Z"},{"id":"my-favorite-things","html_content":"

People love songs for so many different reasons. My ear tends to hear melody, chords, and key changes before anything else. Before lyrics, specifically. When a song grows on me, it is always, without exception, because o...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/my-favorite-things","title":"My Favorite Things","date_modified":"2024-12-18T23:00:00Z"},{"id":"the-rhyming-connection","html_content":"

I have changed the names in this story to protect the privacy of the people involved, with the exception of my own family’s names. Part of the story has to do with a surname that rhymed with mine, so I’ll choose an appro...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/the-rhyming-connection","title":"The Rhyming Connection","date_modified":"2024-12-15T20:00:00Z"},{"id":"two-most-gleeful-times","html_content":"

H.R. Calling!

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/two-most-gleeful-times","title":"Two Most Gleeful Times","date_modified":"2024-11-28T13:00:00Z"},{"id":"lowly-editorial-assistant","html_content":"

I was thinking of one of my past jobs earlier this morning. After leaving my roles at two group homes followed by two psychiatric hospitals, I worked as an Editorial Assistant for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. It was ...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/lowly-editorial-assistant","title":"Lowly Editorial Assistant","date_modified":"2024-11-28T01:00:00Z"},{"id":"let%E2%80%99s-see-the-lead-vocals","html_content":"

A trend that I’ve been seeing more and more of is artists being video recorded while they are singing the lead vocals that end up on the final cut of the album they are making.

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/let%E2%80%99s-see-the-lead-vocals","title":"Let’s See Them Lead Vocals!","date_modified":"2024-11-26T20:00:00Z"},{"id":"kobe-bryants-crash---the-causes-revealed-via-pilot-debrief","html_content":"

I am not a basketball fan by any means, maybe with the exception of catching the occasional games of phenom, Caitlin Clark. Wow, is she freaking amazing! However, when Kobe Bryant was killed in the helicopter crash, I wa...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/kobe-bryants-crash---the-causes-revealed-via-pilot-debrief","title":"Kobe Bryant's Crash - The Causes Revealed via \"Pilot Debrief\"","date_modified":"2024-06-17T22:00:00Z"},{"id":"our-shania-twain-inspired-photo-shoot","html_content":"

Brenda and I have always loved Shania Twain’s video of her hit late 1990's song, “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” So we decided to do our own photo shoot as a sort of tribute to the video and to the song. I always loved her...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/our-shania-twain-inspired-photo-shoot","title":"Our Shania Twain Inspired Photo Shoot","date_modified":"2024-06-07T12:00:00Z"},{"id":"dirt-cheap","html_content":"

There is a song that Cody Johnson sings, which is really lovely. I kept hearing it while working in my office. The radio is in our living room, so as always with me, my ear catches melodies and chords first, which I can ...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/dirt-cheap","title":"\"Dirt Cheap\"","date_modified":"2024-06-05T22:00:00Z"},{"id":"dugans-meaningful-words","html_content":"

I still hear the words that my high school girlfriend’s father said to me one day back in about 1980. He was a nice fellow, and I was lucky to have my girlfriend’s father be both a funny and sincere man. His name was Dug...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/dugans-meaningful-words","title":"Dugan's Meaningful Words","date_modified":"2024-05-30T22:00:00Z"},{"id":"crowdsourcing-traffic-flow-for-state-agencies","html_content":"

I had a thought today as I had my Google Maps set to take me to a destination. I actually usually know my way to my destinations but still program them into my Google Maps app on my phone because when I am on the highway...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/crowdsourcing-traffic-flow-for-state-agencies","title":"Crowdsourcing Traffic Flow For State Agencies","date_modified":"2024-05-26T12:00:00Z"},{"id":"going-greyhound","html_content":"

Having just finished my sophomore year at USC and entering into the summer, I pitched the idea of taking a month long trip to my friend, Elias. He was about to enter UCLA for the fall quarter, and so I thought before bot...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/going-greyhound","title":"Going Greyhound!","date_modified":"2024-05-07T12:00:00Z"},{"id":"dont-look-down-its-a-long-long-way-to-fall","html_content":"

We have been watching, “Made In America,” a short-series about O.J. Simpson on Netflix. It is interesting because it’s a straight documentary on the subject, no actors. It’s shocking how OJ really rejected all of the cal...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/dont-look-down-its-a-long-long-way-to-fall","title":"\"Don't Look Down... It's A Long, Long Way To Fall.\"","date_modified":"2024-05-07T03:00:00Z"},{"id":"road-work-zone---55mph-ahead","html_content":"

I do a lot of driving. That’s just a fact. I like to document things too. Items that add up. One of them is the miles that I have driven in my life. In case you are curious, it’s 1.3 million miles. Not odd for a long-hau...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/road-work-zone---55mph-ahead","title":"Road Work Zone - 55mph Ahead","date_modified":"2024-03-31T22:00:00Z"},{"id":"bring-evan-home","html_content":"

If you haven't already heard, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been imprisoned for one year today, March 29, 2024, for allegations of espionage that he, the WSJ, and the United States government vehement...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/bring-evan-home","title":"Bring Evan Home!","date_modified":"2024-03-29T20:00:00Z"},{"id":"automated-replenishment","html_content":"

One of my idiosyncrasies is a certain strange satisfaction from something that I term, “Automated Replenishment.” That is, a feeling of security that comes from knowing that a process is brining back an item or a need to...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/automated-replenishment","title":"Automated Replenishment","date_modified":"2024-02-17T22:00:00Z"},{"id":"rif---reading-is-fun","html_content":"

I think that the first time I sensed something exciting about reading, not forced upon me by school classes and such, but just by my own desire to escape and extricate information, was when I was working at Disney on “Fa...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/rif---reading-is-fun","title":"RIF - Reading Is Fun!","date_modified":"2024-02-10T22:00:00Z"},{"id":"falling-in-love-with-radio","html_content":"

I love the radio, and it’s brethren, the podcast. The reason is the same as with reading books. There is probably no better visual medium than listening to radio or podcast. There is no deeper reserve than that of your i...

","url":"https://fredometer.com/writing/f/falling-in-love-with-radio","title":"Falling In Love With Radio","date_modified":"2024-01-31T01:00:00Z"}]}