Author Archives: kihm
Worm Syrup
July 5, 2004 When people ask if you had a nice weekend, they may be courteous, they may be curious, but I don’t think they expect a blow-by-blow retelling that takes as long as the actual event. But the question has prompted me to look at one particular weekend and consider just what it was […]
Yesterday
March 2, 2001 I grew up with the Beatles. When I was in high school, they gave me hope. When I was in college, they opened my eyes. And three weeks after Basic Training, they sang on a radio in the barracks in Monterey and lifted my own personality back up to the surface, gasping, […]
Wildlife
June 2002 One evening, I had been out visiting a friend and was driving home to Skaneateles on the New Seneca Turnpike, so named because it is a few years newer than the Old Seneca Turnpike, both dating from the early 1800s. It is a road that winds and rolls through farmland, up and down […]
How to Drink a Yard of Ale
When you drink a Yard of Ale, you’re going to be the center of attention, so you must dress appropriately. Avoid white. Rather, let the hand that chooses your wardrobe be guided to darker shades. And regardless of color, leave your cashmere favorites at home. Lean towards the informal, something perhaps in a waxed canvas, […]
Zoloft
May 14, 2005 I was not coping well. One evening, after an unscheduled one-hour cry, I lifted my head to find my pastor holding my hand. Before putting on the collar, he’d been a psychologist. The next day we talked, and I talked with my doctor, and the consensus was that I could use some […]
My Aunt Rhea
October 25, 2002 When Laurie first met my parents and visited the house I was raised in, she came away without a clue as to where I’d come from. But not long after that, I took her to meet my Aunt Rhea. Laurie told me later that she stepped inside the doorway, and said to […]
Having a Wonderful Time, Chapter 1
It seems silly now, but once I thought the novel was the ultimate goal for a writer, and that I should write one. It would take a long time, but if I kept after it day by day, I would eventually have a novel. But I would have to enjoy what I was doing. So […]
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
February 27, 2005 Where to begin with Hunter Thompson? At the beginning, I guess: Dan McNelly, a fraternity brother, handing me a copy of Hell’s Angels in 1967 and saying, “You’ve got to read this.” (Dan also gave me a copy of Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me by Richard Fariña; […]
Biker Brewers
In the pre-dawn hours, even the birds are asleep in England’s hop country, and the sun has yet to gild the clouds gliding over from the west country. On the shoulder of a narrow lane, a light breeze rustles the hedgerow and, across the way, the first hint of dawn reveals the profile of an […]
Cheever Cowdin and The Son of Dracula
I was researching J. Cheever Cowdin, a polo player of note, when Google directed me to a Spanish-language site dedicated to horror films and this photo of Louise Allbritton as a southern heiress waiting for a warm glass of milk in The Son of Dracula (1943). Needless to say, I was fascinated by this turn […]
Faithful Readers 