Category Personal
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 […]
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 […]
Ry Cooder
This piece originally appeared in the Syracuse New Times. * * * May 1973 Ry Cooder is no pop star. He was restringing his guitar between sets at Jabberwocky and was asked how he felt about Boomer’s Story, his latest album. “Oh, hey, I love that album,” he said. “Everybody else likes the first two, […]
Gully Road
May 8, 2004 Gully Road is high on the list of reasons I love to live here. Running between the Old and New Seneca Turnpikes, it passes through a marsh that could be a set for a vintage Hammer horror film, then a leafy forest glade, then by a silver surfaced pond where the occasional […]
Claude Bolling and The Mummy’s Tomb
This article originally appeared in The Syracuse New Times, April 7, 1982. * * * “All men who are really great can afford to be really human and to be shown so.” — Gamaliel Bradford * * * I am a stranger to my pajamas. It’s early Sunday morning, and I haven’t had a whole […]
Bait
November 2000 It is unfortunate for mice that Halloween occurs as the weather grows colder. A case in point: Last night, as I was fetching a log for the fire, a mouse flew by my feet into the shelter of our basement woodpile. He was cute, and I often identify with mice, small, timid, trying […]
Shorts
July 4, 2005 One hot day when I was a freshman at Syracuse University, John Fennessey, a resident advisor in Marion Hall, put his arm around my shoulders and said, “Kihm, I have some advice for you that you can use all your life… Don’t wear shorts.” From an aesthetic point of view, John was […]
On the Shoulder
September 1998 Whoever said the Kentucky Derby was the most exciting two minutes in sports has never traveled on Route 20 as a pedestrian. Granted, the majority of my walk to work is through the idyllic Village, but my office is about a quarter of a mile outside the Village gates, and the open road […]
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