Barsoom blog.

Kind words from Martha T. in Connecticut: "Dees: Good thing the Blogspot is back in operation, or else I wouldn't have anything else to read. I went to a bar in my home state of West Virginia years ago called 'Wise Guise.' Can't remember which tiny town it was in."

Years ago I went to a bar in Nashville, at the suggestion of a friend of mine named Mike, which was called "Mike & Dees Pub." I think that it was really Mike & Dee's Pub, but the apostrophe got lost along the way. We were out of our element, but it didn't turn into one of those stories in which bikers chase you out into the parking lot.

I was probably the only one on the train who smiled this morning when the automated voice announcing the stations said, "The next stop will be... Mars." Not all the morning or afternoon trains stop at Mars, so I hadn't heard that one before. I did see the candy factory near the station, however, owned by the Mars Co. It's the only Metra transit station I know of that's named after an adjacent commercial enterprise.

It was still funny to hear. It made me think that in some early draft of A Princess of Mars, John Carter fell asleep on a train traveling through the desert, and when he woke up he got off at a Barsoom train station.