The Home Row Blog

News, notes and ramblings
from the Home Row team


January 18, Internet Freedom Day

January 18, 2013

Today is Internet Freedom Day, not a national holiday or even a net event like Cyber Monday. It is, however, a day to recognize the importance of a free Internet that is not censored and is available to everyone as a means to share news and content. Some of the content is pure garbage, some just fluff but it is all there for us to decide for ourselves. And remember, free speech is not a license to be a jerk!

Godwin’s Law

January 2, 2013

Godwin’s Law says that the longer an online conversation goes, no matter the subject or intent of the original thread that someone eventually will evoke Hitler or Nazis. Have we not learned anything about history and peace?

Our Intern Seeks a Cure to Writer’s Block

August 8, 2012

Home Row Intern Kathryn Brill reports in from a summer program in Paris. We can all learn from a change of scenery. August 8, 2012 Conventional wisdom has it that if you want to be inspired, you should go somewhere new. This is part of the reason why I applied to a four-week creative writing [...]

Abbott’s Booby and other literary thoughts for 2012

January 4, 2012

New words from the OED and a new voice for the Library of Congress are just two interesting new finds for 2012.

Top whatever lists for 2011

December 21, 2011

by Sharon Ritchey don’t know if it’s possible to categorize awesomeness but somehow we try. In our land of plenty of everything we try to discern the good from the bad and great from the just o.k. Enter the top whatever list. It could be top 10, top 100, pick a number. I love these [...]

Feeding America Fouls Up Fundraising

December 15, 2011

Feeding America sent me 40 meals worth of marketing. Multiply that by the thousands on their list and you get the idea of how many people they could have provided meals to. Non profits need to look at their fund raising efforts and consider how those at the receiving end view them.

Interrobang, the Coolest Mark of Punctuation We Never Use

November 3, 2011

The interrobang is a mark of punctuation created by advertising executive Martin Speckler in 1962 that combined the question mark and exclamation point into one symbol. It was quite the in mark to use through the 1960s and made it’s way onto a few qwerty keyboards as well as into the dictionary.

Writers Need to Write – A Guest Posting

July 6, 2011

By Kathryn Brill July 6 2011 I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, but I’ve always been a little fuzzy on the details of making that happen. I always sort of assumed that there was a set path to becoming a writer, in the same way that there’s a [...]

Dunbar’s 150 Number and Why I Won’t Connect with You on Facebook

June 11, 2011

Evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar theorizes that humans can only make 150 meaningful connections. This may explain why I’m adverse to “friending” and linking to to everyone who sends me a request.

Is Self Publishing a Book Right for You?

April 28, 2011

April 28, 2011 Posted By Sharon Ritchey Fedex delivered a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne and a book to my office last Tuesday. And while I love champagne, it was the book I was most eager to open. A Smile Never Hurts, One Woman’s Story, by my client Pat Powers Rothacker  has been close [...]



What is the home row?

The home row is the center row of keys on the keyboard "A,S,D,F,J,K,L,;" When students are taught how to become touch typists (typing without looking at the keys) they begin with their hands resting on the home row. The left hand rests on the "A,S,D,F" keys and the right hand on the "J,K,L,;" keys. From this position the other keys can be reached.