Man Talk
Karl works at the same chain I do. He’s a cranky mess of a smart guy, trying to figure out how to live a real life, hold his health together and maintain a relationship with his son as the world … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Everything Else
The Long Hall and the Blank Door
So – December 31st. Every year, we stand in a long hall, staring at a door. We can see the side facing us, the details of the year coming to an end. The other side, once we open it, will … Continue reading →
Fish Story
The old TV show began ‘There are six million stories in the Naked City’ and certainly plenty of them had to be fish stories – New York was, after all, the place PT Barnum had a museum (with live … Continue reading →
Good Scary
I was speaking to a woman in the neighborhood the other day. We’ve known each other for over ten years. She was sitting in the car, waiting for her husband to join her on a trip to their daughter’s in … Continue reading →
End of the Innocence
There’s a man I know, who makes his living as a salesman like I do. I’ll call him Otto. He works for the same company as me, so I see him at sales meetings and the occasional Sunday night … Continue reading →
Shower Wisdom, Chapter One
It’s been my conviction for a long time that whoever invented the shower should be given the Nobel Peace Prize. If I could chart the growth of my knowledge of human beings and particularly my own quirky little self, I … Continue reading →
Occupy Wall Street – November 11, 2011
Zuccotti Park is chaos. It’s a zoo. It’s America. First of all, calling that block Anybody ‘Park’ was delusional to begin with. It was never more than a couple of marble shelves with a few spindly trees in odd places; … Continue reading →
Grab It For All It’s Worth
It isn’t easy being happy. The older you are, the harder it gets. There’s no feeling happy without kicking up the dust of past disappointments, self-delusion, all the foolishness. The things that made you happy still do; the uncertain, … Continue reading →
Enigma and Occupy Wall Street
The power of silence has always driven me crazy. And I’m not the only one. One of my best friends in high school went through a (short) period of thinking of himself as a lady killer. Anyone who’s a friend … Continue reading →
Villains I Have Known and Loved (Part One)
Villains are every bit as important to the power of a thriller as the hero—maybe moreso. If the reader is going to care about the outcome, she will not only have to be interested in the characters, she’ll have to … Continue reading →