Articles written by Michael Pearce

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About me - Michael Pearce

I am a maker of historically-styled medieval swords, knives and daggers as well as modern knives. You can find pictures of my work at Http://www.Tinkerswords.com.
I currently live in Seattle, WA, with my wife Linda. We are engaged in animal resue and have

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Food & Drink > Beef, Pork & Meat Recipes Recipes: Meatloaf: 1 of 40
This is a turkey meatloaf that I have made for years- it's almost a meal in and of itself, and it is excellent the next day for sandwiches. It can also be made with ground chicken. It holds together very well so you can slice it as thin as 1/4 inch for sandwiches. It uses ground turkey as the base meat.1-1/2 lb lean ground tu... More..
Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Car and driving anecdotes: 1 of 12
On many automotive forums my signiture on posts is: "Then one night as I was driving backwards through a cornfield at 90mph I had an epiphany..." A lot of people have asked me about the origen of that quote, so the story follows; Back in the eighties I had a hot-rod '78 Toyota Corolla- built suspension, twin-cam motor with du... More..
Autos > Car Reviews Car reviews: 2007 Pontiac Solstice: 1 of 4
(written in 2006) Thinking about it carefully, America has made exactly one mass-market sportscar since WW2 prior to this model year. The Thunderbird was never a 'sports car' as such. The Vette has been a junior supercar since the first Stingray except for a lamentable period during the seventies and early eighties when it w... More..
Autos > Car Reviews Car reviews: 2007 Ford Mustang: 1 of 4
2007 Mustang GT V8 Having some time to kill Sunday and under instructions not to do anything strenuous I decided to go for a test drive or two. I've been pretty down on the new Mustang on the basis of tests seen on tv and the internet, but decided that maybe I ought to drive one to give it a fair shake and see what I thought ... More..
Society & Lifestyle > Society & Lifestyle (Other) Investigating the meaning of a mid-life crisis: 6 of 22
In the course of a man's life change is constant and some time in a man's life (usually at about thirty-eight to forty years of age) it first occurs to a man that he is not the man he used to be. He may be wiser, better-off and stronger at forty than he was at twenty but the bounding energy of twenty has begun more to trudge ... More..
Autos > Fuel Economy Alternative fuel sources: 11 of 38
In the 1970s we faced high fuel prices and run-away pollution. Alternatives were explored, but fuel became cheap again and Americans once again turned to large, heavy and inefficient vehicles. Now prices are rising again and with them a new threat- global warming. It's time for change, and this time it's happening. We are inc... More..
Creative Writing > Essays Reflections: Starbucks: 12 of 32
I'm from Seattle- coffee capital of the world. I must confess, at the risk of a midnight visit from the Coffee Gestapo, that I'm no great fan of Starbuck's, which I generally refer to as 'McStarbuck's.' Yet I still find myself darkening their doorstep on a fairly regular basis. Why? For the same reason that you will (very) oc... More..
Sports & Recreation > Martial Arts The renaissance of Western European martial arts: 1 of 1
THE RENAISSANCE OF THE SWORD AND HISTORIC EUROPEAN MARTIAL ARTS The Medieval European sword has achieved greater popularity in since the 1970s than it has enjoyed at any time since the Middle Ages. The publication of the Lord of the Rings, the reprinting of Robert E. Howard's Conan and the birth of the Society for Creative An... More..
Autos > Car Reviews Car reviews: 2008 Toyota Scion Xb: 1 of 1
As the clock on our beloved '91 Previa All-trac rolls inexorably towards 265,000 miles and the transmission sinks slowly in the west, it is at long last time to consider a replacement... The truth is we don't so much need a minivan any more- but we do need a car with four doors that will comfortably seat four adults, get rea... More..
Autos > Classic Cars Classic car reviews: 1987 Buick Regal Grand National GNX: 1 of 1
The Buick regal of the late 1970s- early 1980s was almost a poster-child for everything that was wrong with American cars of the era. It was big, heavy, technologically archaic, plastic-y and ugly inside and out. Available only with an unenthusiastic, embarrassingly underpowered lump of a 3.8L V6 mated to the slushiest automa... More..