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Writing on Purpose
In the summer of 1990, I took my first steps away from a soft-cubicled work day. I had some money available, and my employer at the time offered an extended-leave-without-pay benefit that I decided would fit me just fine for a year, anyhow. I was desperate, see, to learn if I really could write — [...]
Package Design Slogans
One of my little… well, I hesitate to call it a fetish. Doesn’t have the same level of intensity. (Er, or so I imagine.)… Anyway, one of my almost unconscious preoccupations is to notice product packages. All kinds of packages: breakfast foods; video games; aspirin bottles; gift wrap; so on and so forth. Of course [...]
A Broken (Family) Tree
A friend (Rick) was telling me last night about some genealogical research he’s been doing. My understanding is that he may be writing up his findings himself. If so, I won’t steal his thunder by relating my (no doubt incomplete and/or flat-out wrong) version of the details. Just wanted to report one laugh-out-loud item. Basically, [...]
Sing, Sing, Sing
This Sunday is Father’s Day in the US. Last week, 20 years ago, my Dad died. I thought a fitting tribute to both of these occasions would be to post here a short story which was, in many ways, a story of my Dad (although none of the actual events described in it occurred to [...]
The Imprint of Books, One Life at a Time
The Editorial Ass blog is running a fascinating series of posts. Collectively referred to as “Celebrate Reading Month,” each post in the series is written by a guest blogger, each describing a book which had an impact on the blogger’s life, understanding of books, reading habits — whatever. MoonRat, who runs the blog, has made [...]
Another Reason to Reconsider One’s Publication Ambitions
I’ve seen the idea, or ones like it, expressed in various forms. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen it expressed so… succinctly. It’s from Edna St. Vincent Millay (found on the DIESEL Bookstore site): A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down.
Forty Years On
From the NY Times, RFK’s kids remember him: Kerry Kennedy But most of all, he believed it imperative to question authority, and those who failed that lesson did so at their peril. Joseph P. Kennedy II Robert Kennedy had a wonderful way of allowing others to tell him how the world looked through their eyes. [...]
Oh, Great. That’s Just GREAT.
With the help of the New York Times, neuropsychologist Katherine P. Rankin dissects for us what it means to recognize sarcasm. In one videotaped exchange, a man walks into the room of a colleague named Ruth to tell her that he cannot take a class of hers that he had previously promised to take. “Don’t [...]
Voices of the Dead
I don’t know if you’ve ever read any of Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, a 1915 collection of about 250 (mostly short) poems. If not, here’s a quick-quick summary: Over 200 “permanent residents” of a cemetery speak their own epitaphs/obituaries, in plain free-verse language. If you’d like more information, there’s always Wikipedia, as well [...]
Mr. Excitement
So, The Missus indulged herself by going on a beach mini-weekend with a girlfriend. Of course I pounced on the opportunity for a hedonistic erstwhile-bachelor weekend of my own. And before you get your collective backs up (or, alternatively, let your collective imagination run riot): no, I didn’t do anything that a stereotypical bachelor does. [...]
