No Teleprompter, No Mercy

Author’s note:   This post is a bit of a departure from the usual. It’s something I wrote when my father was battling what we later learned was pancreatic cancer, a battle he lost in February 2011. It is part of a larger work in progress. I’m sharing it again here to bring attention to [...]

Every year any number of colleges send thousands of students off into the world–you know, the real one–the one that frowns on day drinking and pajama pants as outerwear, the one that can make term papers look good, the one that makes you consider grad school or law school or anything, really, that will keep you out [...]

“This left me alone to solve the coffee problem – a sort of catch-22, as in order to think straight I need caffeine, and in order to make that happen I need to think straight.” — David Sedaris (When You Are Engulfed in Flames) This quote goes through my mind every, single morning.  I stand [...]

“Carrie just bothers me.  She’s so annoying sometimes.”  These were fighting words. I remember the conversation with my friend as clearly as one can remember anything that involves stifling the desire to launch into an obscenity-laden tirade over how wrong a dear friend is while simultaneously trying to dig up a decent synonym for “hater.”  [...]

16 years ago today, Jerry Garcia, founder and frontman of The Grateful Dead, died of a heart attack in California. That day, I took the eulogies over the phone. It was the summer I was doing my penance for the three years I’d spent tied up with less than academic pursuits at college. I was [...]

While your smile is melting straight off your face and your lawn furniture is bursting into flames, your local news team is trying to figure out ways to keep you guessing when it comes to what this crazy weather will do next.  The hope is that you will be too intrigued to turn away and [...]