Recently my family relaunched an unusual project that we started more than two decades ago, but then let sort of fade into the background. Today it lives again! It’s a place where my mom (artist), dad (writer) sister (author) and I do art, short stories, cartoons and other things.

The site is called Fine Words Butter No Parsnips. We named it after a strange old proverb that means “talk is cheap.” More on that later.

Postcards from the early ’00s when the site was new (and had a different URL).

It began back in 2004 with the optimistic idea that if we just built such a site, then maybe we’d actually feel obligated to do creative things to put there, instead of just talking about doing them.

In other words, we built an anti-procrastination machine.

And it worked. There’s nearly a quarter-century of art, short stories and other things over there, please take a look. It’s an entertaining place to escape the day for a moment.

There came the lost years, when we started adding less and less new stuff. Life got in the way. There’s always an excuse, right? But now we’re back at it.

About the name. The proverb “fine words butter no parsnips” has been a recurring joke in my family dating back to childhood. If ever someone in the house made a boastful promise or floated a dubious claim, dad was ready with a smackdown straight out of the 1600s. “Fine words butter no parsnips,” he’d say.

That’s why we thought was the right name to give a thing that we hoped would force us into action. We’ve been entertaining ourselves over there for years. We’d love for you to join us.