September 2, 2023 Jimmy Buffett has transcended the latitudes. His breakthrough album hit when I was a sophomore in high school. “Margaritaville” made it to number two on the Billboard charts. The title track of that album stands out for me as a writer. At 16, that first line of…

August 30, 2023 “What’s all this stuff about being woke?” That’s what Betty asked last year at dinner. Betty, my neighbor, is my southern, Republican, Mormon mother. She’s in Fox News’s demographic, so of course she hears woke more as perjorative than progressive. Plain and simple, woke means being aware…

August 29, 2023 I’m on my every other month perch at ExpressLane in Pulaski, getting an oil/filter change and tire rotation. The background noise is always ESPN on the big screen TV. Two tall tables with seating, one couch, four lounge chairs. The plexiglass guard remains at the service desk…

August 28, 2023 I love a good storytelling. I love an outdoor storytelling. I first found Frank Levering’s Cherry Orchard Theatre a few years ago, right when the pandemic started. How were we supposed to do theatre in lockdown? What about outdoors? …

August 25, 2023 In early February, 2020, I screen-shared a map of confirmed cases of a SARS-like viral infection over Asia. Big red dots over China; smaller dots over South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. No red dots in the western hemisphere. “This might be something big that could…

August 24, 2023 I had a dream last night. I first encountered Ron DeSantis on a train, and then again in a long line at an Italian restaurant. He wasn’t really pugilistic, just a screamer. I attempted rationalization, but any parent knows you can’t be rational with a screaming toddler…

August 23, 2023 I write to think. I told my brother-in-law about Bard College’s Institute of Writing and Thinking (IWT). He quipped, “Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” I know, that seems logical. That’s not the point, though, of the IWT or the process. I can try to work…

August 22, 2023 I recently rewatched Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film Network. Then, it was satirical. Now, it is eerily prescient. (It’s been prescient since Howard Stern and Jerry Springer started their shows.) The film’s famous line became my motto: “We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take…

August 21, 2023 I knew if I was patient enough, I’d get Wordle in one. Today was the day. It’s also the first day of the semester, so I’m going to take it as an omen of a good semester. I love word puzzles of all kinds — Wordle, Dordle…