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 …
Tag: writing
My Own Private Elba
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, May 17, 2019, 10:42 a.m. Realistically, there’s not much else I really want to do. At this point, a bucket list is kind of silly. It would have been worthwhile when I was young. Maybe if I’d decided back then I wanted to go to Venice – or the Knoxville Nationals …
One I Operate; the Other, I Drive
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 8:44 p.m. If you go visit a drive-through, and the bill is $10.68, and you hand the cute girl in the window $21, absolutely anything can then happen. Just an observation. I own two pickups, a 1995 Ford F-150 and a 2018 Chevy Colorado Z-71. They are as …
A Long Line of Pistols and Sons of Guns
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 11:45 a.m. When my mother told me Notre Dame was burning, at first I thought she meant the football stadium. I switched to a news channel. Pete Buttigieg was talking. He’s the mayor of South Bend. It all made sense. Not. I’ve never been to Paris, but I’ve …
Making Sense of Pat Conroy
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, March 28, 2019, 11:56 a.m. It took a long time to read My Exaggerated Life, the oral biography by Pat Conroy as told to Katherine Clark. It’s based on hundreds of conversations between the two. Conroy approved of it, though it wasn’t published until after he died of cancer on March …
Less Wounded Now
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 12:15 p.m. Treatment is going well. Not rehab for any addiction. Not radiation or chemo or anything like that. No shrink. The wound on my leg is almost healed. Soon I won’t have to surround it in clear plastic every time I take a shower. A man reaches …
Life Gets Artificial
Clinton, South Carolina, January 21, 2019, 12:02 p.m. I was just reading a book (My Exaggerated Life, by Pat Conroy as Told to Katherine Clark), because it’s MLK Day and I thought I ought to do something beside editing news releases and obituaries and compiling a crime report, and I heard a crash. It was …
Both Sides Now
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, January 15, 2019, 9:53 a.m. Money can’t buy love. Lack of it damned sure can’t. It has, however, put me in a much better mood. Last week was the culmination of months of negotiation, ably handled by nephew who has business sense, that began when the mayor asked me if the …
Another Year Begins on High Notes
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 4, 2019, 10:52 a.m. I don’t make resolutions. Progress is a day-to-day matter. I just do what I need to do every day. Everyone has to roll with punches to some degree. The year just completed was one of turnaround. I have high hopes that the one ahead will bring …
An Historical Novel of Wartime Intrigue, Rendered Skillfully
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, December 25, 2018 I’m quite ashamed of myself. Ordinarily, I would have devoured The Torch Betrayal, by Glenn Dyer, in a couple weeks. It was a casualty of the increasingly frenetic pace of my life over the past months. I’ve been out and about, writing stories about local affairs, editing news …
Continue reading An Historical Novel of Wartime Intrigue, Rendered Skillfully
Nightrider's Lament 