This morning we rode our bikes up to watch the UM homecoming parade. It was the second one I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. The first was in 1968 when I accompanied my then-girlfriend and her mom – a UM alumna – on the drive from Eureka down to Missoula for just that occasion. I […]
Disease du jour
Last week I felt the tiniest scratch of an imminent sore throat, a few unfamiliar aches, a bit of leakage around the nostrils. I thought, here we go. My wife had caught Covid for a second time not even three weeks earlier, and pretty much everybody else I know has had it at least […]
One more time in print
Just when I thought my desultory writing career was nearly done, I sold another short story. It’s called “Five Hat Minimum” and it appears in the current issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (which we literary lions refer to as EQMM). You should buy several copies and hand them out as gifts. Or, use […]
Like a good neighbor
There’s something about being an older white guy in America: At some point you feel like the kids need to get off your lawn. Figuratively speaking. We got some new neighbors a few weeks ago. This neighborhood is OK, but there’s a somewhat decrepit rental house across the street. It’s so decrepit that it […]
To post or not to post
Today I read a piece pining for the return of personal blogging. You remember blogs, right? They were kind of like this: A smattering of uninformed opinions, desultory philippics (get out your dictionaries!) and occasional attempts at humor. People would also post recipes. In the early aughts, everybody had a blog. Most tried to […]
This could be
the last time
You always know when you’re experiencing something for the first time. But you can never be sure when it’s the last. After a certain age, most things take on an elegiac cast. Only later can you look back and recognize a final moment for what it was. And you always wish you’d paid more […]
Not throwing away
my shot
Whenever I go to a Wal-Mart, I am reminded that whatever you save there in dollars you eventually surrender in dignity. But it happened to be the first place with available appointments for the Covid vaccine, so my vigilant wife arose early and booked it online. When I arrived at the appointed hour, a […]
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