Like many young, slightly mature boys, I loved Mad magazine. As such, I was delighted to see this in the New York Times.

A couple days ago, I put together the second batch from my sourdough starter. I wanted to peck out a couple notes on it, now that I’ve had a chance to sample the product.

Two changes: first, I stepped up the flour a little more than I planned; second, I baked in a bread pan for the first time in I don’t remember how long (I’m usually a button-loaf guy).

The dough slid a bit more toward spongy than goopy, which is what I’ve worked with most recently

I love my iPhone, but I’m not sure I’d take a dive for it.

When I tuned into Charlie Rose last Monday, he explained his shiner by saying he fell. The truth is much funnier, as I find on the TechCrunch blog: He tripped while walking with his new MacBook Air, and sacrificed himself to save the computer. Attaboy, Charlie.

As a Machead, he’s got me beat. I dropped my iPhone while running on the treadmill a couple weeks back. It landed at my feet, and zipped off to the side. While my heart skipped a beat, if I had made a move to save it I’d have a shiner or worse. I can’t sing enough the praises of shock-absorbent cases.

Yesterday I freestyled sourdough bread from my own starter. It has a mild sour taste, but I have to work on my proportions. I’ve too much water. The loaf splayed out into a shape reminiscent of a Frisbee (with a slightly peaked dome).

I’ve been baking bread regularly since the beginning of the year. The recipe I’ve used comes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. It’s a wonderful book with a brilliant shortcut to making bread: Make a bunch of dough beforehand, and keep it chilled. When you’re ready to bake, tear off a glob, form it and bake at 450 degrees until done.

Their recipe falls into the idiot-proof category. Broken down to atoms, it is: a little more than twice as much flour as water, and for every two cups of flour, a half tablespoon of both yeast and salt. For instance, you might use just over six cups of flour, three cups of water, and a tablespoon and a half of yeast and salt. Those proportions have been yielding three loaves over a week and a half that are ample to feed two people. It’s simple and easily scaled up or down, and the dough keeps for almost two weeks.

After two months of baking this recipe, two things happened. First, my bread-baking confidence grew. Second, I ran out of yeast. The natural extension of both those situations: Culture a sourdough sponge. One part flour, one part warm water, and I was on my way.

After a few days of feeding, stirring and nursing it, it had the requisite bubbles and looked like pancake batter. Good. On to the next step

Researchers in the Czech Republic have found that, the more beer you drink, the less likely you are to publish peer-reviewed scientific papers. So, here’s to beer: both the cause and solution to all of life’s problems.

David Simon, of “The Wire” fame, stands on the Huffington Post soap box and tells the media: You’re punked!

I heard about this blog on NPR. Be sure to click on the full list.

As I mentioned, I’ve taken up running. I guess creeping middle age has gotten to me. I suspect, like many people after age 30 or so, the concept of mortality has grown clearer and I find myself looking for ways to stave off the inevitable. Exercise, and somehow one convinces oneself that the health benefits reaped push back at death just a little bit.

Or, maybe I just enjoy it.

Either way, I’m thinking about challenging my discipline and committing to run a half marathon later this year. The inaugural Brooksie Way Half Marathon is Oct. 5. It begins and ends in front of Meadow Brook Hall on Oakland University’s campus.

This week, I ran just over 13 miles. All I have to do is fit a week’s worth of running into about two and half hours. No problem. Right?

We’ll see. I’m going to continue on the treadmill (and on the thawing streets) for the next month or so, and then decide.

Long-time gone, but it feels good to stretch my blogging fingers again.

Updates on my life (I’m sure both of my readers care deeply):

• I’ve begun a column at chipsquinn.org, about my experiences working on newspapers’ copy desks, and the little bits of wisdom gleaned thereof. First installment is here. Find the second here. Chips Quinn is an internship program I was in way back inn 2003. It helped me get my start as a copy editor. My column will run monthly.
• I’ve switched hats a bit in my job at the Detroit News. Now, I’m designing less, and working part time in the Features department. The balance of my time is on the night copy desk.
• I’ve done something that surprises me: I’ve taken up running. Once, you could describe my mindset as aerobaphobic. No longer. So far this week, I’ve run more than 13 miles. It feels good, and my endurance certainly benefits.
• Along with the rest of the world, I’ve joined Facebook. I’m not a super social person, and end up ignoring most of the pokes, prods and requests to take this test or that, but I’m trying.
• Me and Mrs. Blocletters are addicted to In Treatment, HBO’s compelling (to understate it) drama about a therapist and his patients.

That’s it for now. But, I just renewed the domain for another 12 months, so I owe it to this space to keep it full. Feels good.