Squirrel
He said he would set a trap for the squirrel and return periodically to check it. "We can't let him stay out there all night," he said. "He could freeze."
Nonfiction
Original essays and other truth in writing. Subscribe: RSS
On the Way to CNN (or, Strife During Wartime)
It’s March 2003, and a late snowstorm is capping what was the snowiest winter since 1978 when we were all kids and school closed for a week. I’ve got a wood stove and a novel to write, and I should be sitting in front of the one and working on the other. Instead, I’m in …
“The War Prayer” by Mark Twain
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading …
From Liberty Cabbage to Freedom Fries
Or: The Ethical Crisis of the Contemporary American Left Like many twenty-something liberals, I suppose, until the fall of 2001 when the advent of the War on Terror put a final end to any lingering vestiges of the Long Boom, my political ethics were largely a matter of faith. Raised by moderate parents and educated …
Deleted Items (777)
A composite of the 777 e-mails I've deleted in the past few days Dear FIRSTNAME (friend), I know you're very busy so I'm gonna get right to the point. THE INCUMBENT PRESIDENT(CHIEF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO) HAS MAPPED OUT SOME STRATEGY TO USE THE COUNTRY'S PETROLEUM MONEY TO FINANCE HIS CAMPAIGN, HE RAISED THE COST OF PETROLEUM …
Channel Your Ambition
One of the most interesting things I have discovered since losing my job is that TBS shows four back-to-back reruns of the television show Dawson's Creek every morning from 8am to noon. Today, unfortunately, there was a conflicting event: a "Women For Hire" job fair was held in downtown Boston. Being a woman for hire …
Silver Balloons
In my search for employment, I overtalked, confessing to anyone who would listen that for six years I had been silent. I was proud of the length of my suffering.
Space Shuttle Columbia: Are We Really United in Mourning?
At the risk of sounding heartless, I confess that I am not in a state of terrible mourning over the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, nor do I find myself paralyzed with grief for the seven brave and talented souls who perished in its final fiery disintegration over Texas. I haven’t shed any tears …
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Road Rage
Until you came up behind me, I was on cruise control. I pegged you for another of those nose-pickers of the interstate. But when I moved to pass a truck, you sped up to tailgate me. You got behind me -- breathing down my neck -- and then you flashed your headlights. You know I …
Loose Lips Sink Ships
The classified ad in San Francisco's Bay Guardian was straight out of a doper's dream: Marijuana Research Subjects Wanted. Sure, why not?! In those days—late 1975—it seemed surprising that the U.S. government was still trying to figure out the physiological effects of cannabis, but if they were willing to pay folks to smoke their Mississippi-grown …