Times are changing. The Republicans are acting like the Democrats. The Democrats are having a fine old time watching. Next week, I expect, the Democrats will act, in response, like Republicans used to. And I'll be glad that all I've got to do is vote. I didn't watch much of the GOP -- when I …
Tag: Republicans
That Melania Trump Has a Way with Words
The Boston Red Sox were off Monday night. They're playing the San Francisco Giants at Fenway Park tonight. Although there were a couple movies in which I had some interest, I idly watched the Republican National Convention out of perverse fascination. It was similar to the reason why, a week earlier, I inexplicably watched an …
She Said, ‘Mama, Got a Note Here from the Harper Valley PTA’
Tuesday was another walking contradiction, particularly since I didn't do much walking. I'd been paying attention to really important matters on Monday -- a rained-out stock car race about which the Bleacher Report pays me to write, college baseball regionals, general early-week angst -- and the grass needed cutting, and I'd spent Tuesday morning writing about …
Continue reading She Said, ‘Mama, Got a Note Here from the Harper Valley PTA’
High Above the World Where No One Cares
Marvin staggered out of bed, stopped off for a leak, and advanced boldly into the kitchen in search of a swallow of water to combat the cotton mouth. Gaining coherence and mental acuity, he applied the fundamentals of coffee making to his machine and retreated because nature was beginning to call, and, sometimes, in …
Speeding, and Fiction, and … Speeding Through Fiction
I can't drive 55. I can drive 62. They never stop you when you're 10 miles an our or less over the speed limit. About four months ago, I got my first speeding ticket in at least five years. I got it in the worst state possible to be stopped for speeding, North Carolina, which …
Continue reading Speeding, and Fiction, and … Speeding Through Fiction
With Basketball in the Background
I'm watching the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. Well, not really watching it. It's on TV. Bill Walton and Maui go together, I think, but that's about all that has pierced my consciousness. I look up after hearing Walton mention Willie Mays. Indiana leads St. John's, 16-8. It beats The Weather Channel, especially since the forecast …
My Fiction and Welcome to It
Let’s see. What’s the most boring, clichéd way I can begin a blog? Oh, I got it. Good news and bad news. First, the bad. Sales of Crazy of Natural Causes have been sagging recently. Rather than ranging from 15,000 to 50,000 in the ever-changing rankings, the range has shifted to 50,000 to 200,000 over …
Like Old Times
Here’s the second episode of this short story, which revisits Riley Mansfield, the main character in my novel The Audacity of Dope, seven years later. The first episode was called “Seven Years If It’s a Day.” LIKE OLD TIMES To his satisfaction, Riley Mansfield’s position had descended in the public consciousness, but he still …
Oh, Sweet World of Sin
This is the final installment of my latest serial of short fiction. Preceding it, in chronological order, were “A Jogging Contradiction,” “The Good One,” “Contrary to Ordinary,” “Backsliding,” “A Sign of Weakness,” and “Sweet Freedom.” If you haven’t been following along, fear not, for I shall post the whole story in one take …
Questions, Questions, Never Answers …
I often have questions that no one answers. For instance, is the danger of having preservatives in our food greater than the danger of eating unpreserved food? I thought about this while noting that the tomato in my refrigerator that I left before I went on a week-long trip still seemed perfectly edible when …
Nightrider's Lament 