I’ve always fancied myself an aficionado of the pop culture, particularly of any variety born or raised in the 80s or 90s. And while I’m not the encyclopedia of information that my friend Mitch is, I am, perhaps, something of an abridged coffee-table reference. Or maybe a pocket dictionary. I remember once playing Trivial Pursuit, 20th […]
Continue ReadingI keep looking in the wrong drawers. They aren’t the wrong drawers in any existential sense. I mean, as a drawer, they’re perfectly right. They are drawers and drawers are what they are. They just lack qualifiers. And that’s the problem — we can’t just say, “Put it in the silverware drawer.” Because, so far, […]
Continue Reading“So I was starting to tell the girl at the counter how bad it smells in the women’s locker rooms, and this guy, he steps up next to me to hand the girl his card and as I’m mid-sentence—right after I say ‘it smells like a mixture of B.O and chlorine’—he says, ‘Oh, that’s me. […]
Continue ReadingIn many ways, New Jersey has been a good move for C and me. C loves her job and I’ve discovered inner peace and existential understanding through yard work. Oh, and we have some great kitchen drawers. And while our neighbors are a little yellow-bellied and talk funny, they’re friendly and very welcoming. Still, it’s no secret that if […]
Continue ReadingSaturday morning, up early. Some hurried grits. A vitamin and a pain killer. This is the way things start. Then C and Honey took me to Newark Penn, where I caught the Northeast Regional to Union Station and transferred to the Metro Red toward Glenmont. Much on the docket. Some minor apartment fixes on order. […]
Continue ReadingLate at night, when I’m in my office and only the halogen arm lamp above me is on, Honey will sometimes catch a glimpse of my reflection in the sliding glass doors and she’ll start barking her deep burglar-alarm bark. I’ll assure her that it’s only me, but she keeps at it, the hair standing […]
Continue ReadingOne way to relax after a Sunday afternoon herding leaves is to have a couple of beers and sit on the couch with your hand under your belt and watch some football and feel good and fine and strong—and downright brawny, damnit, like the guy on the paper towel rolls—for having worked hard and for having […]
Continue ReadingThe writing workshop I’m taking at NYU is going really well. For the first time, I’ve shown a section of the novel I’m working on to somebody other than myself. And that’s been constructive, because myself tends to nit-pick relentlessly and is, overall, a huge asshole. So I’ve appreciated getting some perspectives that are more objective and less […]
Continue ReadingPaul wrote on my wall: We’re almost halfway to 70. How do you feel? I wrote back: When I look at it that way … not good. When Paul and I met, we were only halfway to eight. Back then, we spent most of our days together. We were best friends, and really more like brothers. We […]
Continue ReadingMy hands are dry and cracked and bruised. When I bend the index finger of my right hand, sometimes the knuckle splits and bleeds. I think this is the way my hands should be. They are more interesting this way. They remind me that they’ve done things. And that they have purpose. And during morning […]
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