Monthly Archives: May 2012
Fragments
This writing comes from fragments, literally, from a file that sat for 20 years, and notebooks that haven’t been opened in a long time. I don’t know what they all mean, but if I put them here, I can throw away the scraps of paper. * * * Paul set the leatherette controls to Full […]
A Fine Line
November 7, 2002 When I wrote a piece about a chain of beer rings that circumnavigated my living room in Monterey in 1969, I felt the need to research both the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 and Ermal “Ernie” Fraze’s perfection of the pop-top can in 1963. The story was going to […]
Flu and Funerals
July 8, 2007 When I was a young boy, I was fascinated by death. I read a great deal about war, torture, gladiators. Given my bent, I listened raptly to any family stories having to do with death and dying. My mother told me this one: When she was a little girl, an older relative […]
Fashion
April 2001 I took my green tweed sport coat out for a show and dinner on Saturday. It seemed to be the least I could do; we’ve been together now for many years, and I am not sure how many more good times we’re going to be having. My mother bought the green coat for […]
England 2007
November 30, 2008 In the autumn of 2007, over lunch at Boom Boom Mex Mex, I was telling friends about my nephew’s wedding in England. One of them asked if the bride and groom live in England, and I said no, they live in Japan. And she said, “Of course.” Any number of people have […]
Dry Beer
How Dry We Might Be: Dry Beer, Malt Liquor and the Second Coming of Prohibition This article appeared in the Syracuse New Times, September 21-28, 1988. The statistical and brand information is thus dated, but there are some larger truths that remain relevant. * * * We are a jaded people, forever searching for something […]
The Ghost of Nancy Drew
This article originally appeared in The Syracuse New Times, March 3-10, 1993. * * * One night at bedtime, my daughter asked me to read her a mystery. She was 8 and not quite ready for P.D. James, but I remembered I had an old Nancy Drew downstairs, a memento of the era when I […]
Draft Dodger
August 31, 2004 I was a draft dodger. I know this because early in Air Force Basic Training, as my aptly named “flight” stood in formation, my T.I. boomed out, “You are all draft dodgers!” None of us cowards said a word in reply, so it must have been true. At the time, the summer […]
Dark
August 4, 2007 I was a dark child. The world beyond my bedroom didn’t offer me much. My shoes were scuffed, my corduroys bloomed at the waist and I wore suspenders. I wasn’t going out for the team, any team. I did not have many callers. Solitary study, on the other hand, was welcoming and […]
The Coolest Dog
June 13, 2004 I met the coolest dog in church today. The service was supposed to be in Thayer Park by the lake, and for weeks Robert had been saying, “Bring chairs, blankets, pets.” At least one dog was bound to show up, and he did. But the brisk wind coming off the lake drove […]
Faithful Readers 