"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, October 31, 2019, 9:30 a.m. I try not to hate, but from time to time, I have to ask forgiveness over things such as New York Yankees. It’s not as bad to hate things as it is to hate people. For instance, I hate a lot of words. Utilize. In all …
Continue reading It’s Only Words, and Words Are All I Have …
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 9:22 a.m. It’s going to be one of those days, crashing down on another one like white water over rocks. Seldom is it good when one notices that the answering machine is beeping at the crack of dawn. I seldom was called a moron before Trump got elected …
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, October 7, 1019, 9:38 a.m. This blog is an intangible. I derive no tangible income from it. I hope it has some promotional value, but mainly I write it to get things off my chest. It’s therapeutic in its way. Sometimes it’s a warm-up, like playing scales, I guess, if I …
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, September 17, 2019, 12:49 p.m. One of the small attributes that has grown within me as I’ve aged is an attempt to minimize the effect of superstition in my life. This sort of began with research for my third novel, Crazy of Natural Causes (2015). The story of Chance Benford required …
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, August 30, 2019, 12:02 p.m. Thursday evening was a matter of logistics. The Clinton High School cross country team left Wilder Stadium with the “game ball” for Friday’s rivalry at Laurens. They passed it to the Laurens harriers about halfway up U.S. 76; then they boarded the bus that had been …
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, August 15, 2019, 11:55 a.m. I’m a volatile combination: meticulous and, yet, absentminded. I’ll go through a news release and change every “8:00 PM” to “8 p.m.,” but I’ll write “it’s” when I know damn well it’s supposed to be “its.” I have to edit myself as much as the releases. …
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 11:50 a.m. My greatest flaw is absentmindedness. Fortunately, I am also meticulous. How do these competing atributes exist in the same body? This has thus far been a frantic week, and there’s no good reason for it. It’s “the summertime when the weather is hot, you can stretch …
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, June 20, 2019, 10:47 a.m. Advertising has never been particularly important to me. I’ve spent most of my life working for newspapers, but I have my own small role in their decline. I’ve never paid any attention to the ads. Apparently, I was not alone. In a very small way, I …
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, June 14, 2019, 12:22 p.m. What is better now than it used to be? Special K. Remember when kids jockeyed for position to get the best cereal ahead of their siblings from the Kellogg’s Snack Pack? Special K wasn’t special at all. It usually got thrown away. It was supposed to …
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, June 4, 2019, 11:07 a.m. I am, under normal circumstances, annoyingly punctual, a legacy of my grandmother and my football coach. Most of my acquaintances are fashionably late. Many are the times I get antsy, complete my work in a hurry and go somewhere 45 minutes early. It makes me frantic …
Nightrider's Lament 