Is this not the most perfect punctuation mark for this miserable moment of school failure? "School District Apologizes After Teacher Tells First Graders Santa Isn't Real" But they're not really sorry. Nope ... because Santa was in the way of that "grit 'n rigor" stuff. So they called in Miss Grinch ... the Christmas Crud. She did … Continue reading First Grade Christmas Blues
I don’t know how we can like ourselves very much. Not in this moment. Everything’s so disordered and ill-tempered. And lots seem very okay with this ... all right with this bankruptcy of common sense. There’s this casualness in how we mistreat sacred stuff that's made us special. How we desecrate … and adulterate … indispensable … Continue reading Things Fall Apart
The Original Thanksgiving Proclamtion After the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day is our most observed national holiday. The tradition harks back to the colonists of Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, who, after their first harvest, held a celebratory feast in the fall of 1621—a three-day celebration in which local Native American chiefs and tribesmen participated. But the … Continue reading A Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer ~
I was startled to be there … on the floor. Flattened like a beaten boxer. Surrounded by chair legs and sofa bottoms. Gawked at by books that had been leaning on each other for years. On my back in the autumn dusk. Mattressed on my favorite carpet … gazing up at recessed-lights that looked … Continue reading The Squish
GUEST POST “My Twenty Three Years As An Orphan” ~ by Mike SackettI can’t decide if I’m seeing my old life as Walt and Mary’s late-hatching egg through smoke, fog or dust…but something is making those years hazy, so it might be all three. After popping out five Depression-era peeps in as many years, Mom and … Continue reading “What Will They Think of Next?” NewFangledness
Ten thousand six hundred nineteen miles is a long way. But it’s not so long if it delivers you home … for the first time in three years. Not such an odyssey if it leaves behind a war ... and lands you on the other side of the world … back in the arms … Continue reading Home
“Confidence is a nice suit. Arrogance is the same suit … with suspenders, Italian loafers, and gold cuff links.” Meet Andrew Cuomo. Governor of New York. Well tailored in arrogance. Not quite content with a modest marker for his father’s grave, he decided on a three mile long masterwork ... a bridge ... across the … Continue reading Governor Thug
Guest post: She gazes at fields of Brandywine corn in the dark, barely morn, and a sliver of sunlight catches the mirror in her attic bower her face pale as flour, she first turns away, then a glance on the run she’s tidy and slender, her hair in a bun she’s a seamstress, bow-maker, a … Continue reading You Don’t Know What You Missed…
Enter a caption When I was a kid, trouble had no trouble finding me. “Trouble” might be too strong. Call it mischief. Or devilry. I never thought I was doing anything wrong-wrong. I was just doin’ different stuff. So … so I got into different trouble. You gettin’ this? “There is always one … Continue reading Water Your Children
I have no problem bein’ a man. Comes naturally. I know who I am … and what I’m like. I own up to myself … ‘cause I can’t lie worth a damn. I confess to lots … and it ain’t saintly stuff. First off, guys are … well … guys. And to hell with anyone … Continue reading The Truth About Men … and Sex
Missives Worth Reading 