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Staying, Moving
From whiskey river: Air Naturally it is night. Under the overturned lute with its One string I am going my way Which has a strange sound. This way the dust, that way the dust. I listen to both sides But I keep right on. I remember the leaves sitting in judgment And then winter. I [...]
Boiling It Down to a Single Word
Hypothetical-question time: You’ve just been introduced to the classic visitor from outer space. He (or is it she?) is in a hurry — in fact, will be leaving in about 20 seconds, starting, say, now — but has a super-important question which needs answering. How you answer is to determine whether the saucers will (a) [...]
The Hurricane Phone
Back in the day — you know, the day — you could say (as I used to) “I work for the phone company” and no one would doubt which phone company paid your salary. That’s why Lily Tomlin’s old “Ernestine the telephone operator” could say, without ambiguity, “We’re the phone company. We don’t have to [...]
Short Fiction: Forager
One of the shortest stories I’ve ever written clocks in at under 1500 words — a miracle, for me. It’s based on a true story from some years ago, maybe the early to mid-’90s, the details of which I no longer remember. I do remember that the true story, too, took place in New York [...]
Overwhelmed by Ursula Vernon
Okay, look — so I don’t have kids of my own, and my niece and nephews and stepkids are all grown and the next generation is still somewhere out on the misty horizon. But I keep coming across these nominally “children’s” books which I then wish I had a non-adult excuse to read. Much of [...]
Lightnin’ Pickin’
In the Writers to Be Read category over there on the right, you’ll see a link to something called Froogville. Its proprietor, one (presumably pseudonymous) Froog, runs a second blog as well: Round-the-World Barstool Blues whose mission, he says there, can be summed up as “Musings on life & love from the bars of the [...]
“Allow Me.” “No, Allow Me!”
An interesting article by Rachel Donadio will appear in tomorrow’s New York Times Book Review, on the practice of blurbing — that is, authors (generally best-selling ones who, as the saying goes, Need No Introduction) providing capsule reviews to appear on the back covers and jacket flaps of books by authors who, well, generally need [...]
Skywriting
To start the day, if not finish it, what’s turning out to be, apparently, a weekly habit: a Friday selection from among the previous seven days’ whiskey river postings: Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and [...]
Restless Sojourner on the Web
Longfellow says, in “My Lost Youth”: A boy’s will is the wind’s will, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. Adds Grace Paley: I was a fantastic student until ten, and then my mind began to wander. Today’s been a day for lack of focus (by necessity, not choice) and wandering around in [...]
Review: Douglas Preston (with Mario Spezi): THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE
My review at The Book Book is up. Probably not a book for everyone — if you disliked, say, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, you’re probably not a good candidate for reading and enjoying (?!?) The Monster of Florence. Unless, that is, the reason you didn’t like the former was that it [...]
