Happy Halloween

A Few of My Favorite Things

I'm a compulsive list writer. I write lists for everything - favorite books and movies, obviously. But lists of bad movies too. And a timeline of my life (under construction...my memory is really working against me there...). I have a shitlist, so I can remember the names of the truly terrible people in this world. … Continue reading A Few of My Favorite Things →

The Book of Knowledge

Someone left these just lying around. That seems dangerous. They belong in the White House, surely.

On Writing Expenses

As the words on my gravestone will emphasize: it could always be worse. I don’t do drugs or smoke. I gamble only with the amount of bacon I choose to wrap around my heart. “Drinking” means a bottle of beer occasionally after dinner…maybe two if my wife is having one of her shindigs. I don’t … Continue reading On Writing Expenses →

Flicka

The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

On Nostalgia

Nostalgia is both a feeling and a retail pattern. I’ve noticed that it seems to increase as a person (this person) gets older. In my early life, remembering the past took a very specific form. When I was growing up, there was no choice for me or my brothers: we had to be collectors. I … Continue reading On Nostalgia →

On Moving

Moving furniture for other people is some kind of rite of passage for a certain kind of college student around these parts. Often, when I was younger and helping someone move a couch, say, I’d think it was a viable career option for me. It was not. And now, as I head with increasing speed … Continue reading On Moving →

The To-Read Pile

I have too many books. There: I said it. I used to be a voracious reader of books, but now I am...less so. The decline set in around the time I started being paid to read academic text for a living. It broke me. If you've read unedited academic papers, you'll know what I mean. … Continue reading The To-Read Pile →

pig

I didn't read it, but I think this is a prime example of the southern Gothic tradition in American storytelling. I'm only guessing, mind, but I'm pretty sure that this character - pig (note the absence of a capital "P" - this poor soul is lost in lowercase) - makes it to the deep South … Continue reading pig →