Josie Swenson and Tripp Fallaw arrive in Los Angeles, two days ahead of Tripp’s great golf hustle. Josie learned shortly that Wade Sanderson was more than just Caddy to the Stars. He sold them weed. Sanderson drove a nice, burgundy SUV, a Ford Explorer for which he apologized and said he was aiming to trade …
Dominion Over The Language
You want to know how big sports is? It supersedes language. That was a serious offense when I was in grade school. Where is the past tense of “fly,” not “flew”? Baseball, and in this instance I concede the game has a good reason. When a batter hits a fly ball, it’s easy to imagine …
How Josie Got Stuck In Her Rut
As I have progressed on my serial short story, “Stuck in a Rut,” whose fourth part I wrote on Tuesday, I’ve mentioned that it is based on a song I wrote by the same name. Apparently I wrote it in late 2010. I wrote it and another song, “The Paved Road,” on the same day, …
Stuck in a Rut, Part Four
This short story began with a song I wrote with the same name. With the song as a base, now I'm making it up as I go along. Tripp told Josie to be standing out front of the Columbia airport – it was allegedly “international” though most of its planes flew to places like Atlanta …
Stuck In A Rut, Part Three
This is a serial short story, derived and expanded from a song I wrote. The first two parts may be found elsewhere in my blogs. A switch, somewhere in Josie Swenson, flipped on. She changed and felt adventurous. She walked outside between classes and smoked a cigarette, which she had never done before. Her two …
Drive-Through Blues
I ordered two biscuits and, leaning out the window, informed the voice from the speaker that I had a coupon to “buy one and get one free.” I have learned that it is futile to say something that is merely English – “I want two biscuits, and I’ve got a coupon to get one free” …
Lyrically High
When I was a boy, I noticed that a trademark of Buck Owens songs was that lots of them began with, Weeeellll, I’m a-gonna … I suppose we all fall into patterns, whether by intent or habit. I tend to begin songs by getting up in the morning, sometimes literally. The first thing I saw …
Another Morning In Paradise
I was dreaming about something beautiful. I could probably describe it if I had not staggered into the den, faster than my wits would allow, stubbing my toe on the exercise bike/clotheshorse on my way to the front door, on which my beloved nephew was knocking. It was about 6:30. I had already awakened briefly …
Little Things Mean A Lot
It’s funny what you miss and what you don’t. (I could’ve seemed intelligent and grammatically correct by writing “what one misses and what one doesn’t,” but hell, I’m already writing in first person so what’s it matter? Nowumsayin?) For instance – imagine Warner Wolf saying “in an upset!” – I haven’t seen The Weather Channel …
Literary Chili
Sometimes, here amid life in paradise, the sparks just don’t fly. I’ve been buying time all day, and it’s just about to exceed my credit line. Yeah, that one, too, but what I’ve been doing today is little things to bide my time until that great, daily burst of creative force arrives, shaking the dishes …
Nightrider's Lament 