I remember when I first heard of Don McLean and "American Pie." It was a little over forty-four years ago. I was in the library of Bell Street Middle School, reading Time magazine. At about the same time, maybe even the same day, I read an article about James Taylor. I still tell people …
Tag: freedom
At Least See if It’s too Hot for You to Handle
Why should you read my novel, Crazy of Natural Causes? Maybe you follow me. Maybe you’ve read one or both of my other novels, The Audacity of Dope (2011) and The Intangibles (2013). Maybe you’ve read my non-fiction books. Maybe you’ve read my newspaper columns, blogs and stories over the past 35 years. Maybe you …
Continue reading At Least See if It’s too Hot for You to Handle
The Way I Do, Part One
When I was young / I went off to college / But I flunked out ‘cause I could not pass no test / My old man barely made it past fifty / And I reckon that I’ll follow his footsteps / But it ain’t gon’ be bad health that’s gonna kill me / It won’t …
Excuse Me For Not Caring
I don’t care if the sun don’t shine / I don’t care if the bells don’t chime / Just as long as you love me. – Buck Owens Time is infinite, but mine isn’t. I just don’t have time to care about everything. Some things don’t amount to a hill of beans, or …
Scuppernongs and Muscadines, Part One
My daddy used to say / You gotta be a man / You gotta pull your weight / You gotta work the land / But every time I tried and failed / He turned away from me / By the time I was a man / It was too late for him to see. …
Facebook Friends
The world is changing / Always rearranging / From birth to the end / With my Facebook friends. It’s not that Jerry Lennart opposed Facebook. He spent a goodly amount of wasted time on it. It wasn’t that it was worse than Twitter or whatever new flavor inevitably followed. It was that word that followed …
Facebook Friends, Part Three
Now I’ve learned / My lesson well / There’s a price to pay / For those who insist / To rebel / A man works hard / And tries to mend / All the cracks and dents of having / Facebook friends. What in hell was wrong? Driving typically was a pleasant experience for …
No One Learns from the Learned
When did we stop believing people who know a lot? It’s everywhere. People are not dissuaded in the least to learn that 97 percent of scientists believe climate change is a major crisis. Person at the grocery store (or on Facebook): “They don’t know what they’re talking about.” Me: “How much do you know about …
Furlough Blues, Part Three
This is a short story whose creative basis is a song of mine. It never seemed as if Jerry Lowndes slept. The jail cell wasn’t exactly the Hilton, though neither had been the motel room where he and Laurie had been cavorting. His mind had been alive, considering the depth of the hole and paucity …
Every Day Is Fools Day
Is there really any need for April Fools Day? I mean, really, what’s the point? I spent Monday, an exceedingly dreary day, thinking about possible hoaxes I could goodnaturedly foist upon the unsuspecting public. Guess what? No one in the public is unsuspecting anymore. They already suspect the president of being a socialist, a Muslim …
