Category Archives: Uncategorized
For Rent: One-Level 3-Bed 2-Bath in Near East Side
Rare one-level living on the near East Side! Ideal for families! Walk to the elementary school, library, and uptown. Continue reading
Happy Mother’s Day
During our 28 years together, Lara and I have assembled an art collection that makes our house feel like a home. Each piece is a time machine, transporting us back to some magical point in our life together, making it … Continue reading
John Waters has a book he’d like Trump to read
This By the Book interview with John Waters in Sunday’s New York Times was all kinds of awesome, from his citing Ignatius J. Reilly as his favorite fictional hero to his cranky anticipation of the English translation of the next … Continue reading
New Year’s Rainbow
(with apologies to Thomas Pynchon, Monty Python and the Kenosha Kid) May there be no masturbators in your stacks No Trumps in your tulips No communists in your kitchen, eating your wife’s jam May the pig hero Plechazunga Drive off … Continue reading
Winter solstice sunset from Radar Hill, Athens, OH
The end-of-the-semester-head-clearing hike
As the semester grinds down, I catch myself looking intently at any stand of trees I encounter. For 16 weeks, I’ve allowed my urge to hike, bike or kayak be suppressed by teaching duties. It’s bullshit, really. I could easily … Continue reading
Merry Christmas in 360
I shot this Christmas card with my Theta S VR/360 camera. And I’m testing a WordPress plugin that allows me to display them on this site. So use your mouse to scroll around and you can see the decorations in … Continue reading
These books I have shorn against my ruin: from hobbits to Pynchon to the Tao
In a recent Wall Street Journal Saturday essay, Will Schwalbe made the case for reading. “At the trial in which he would be sentenced to death, Socrates (as quoted by Plato) said that the unexamined life isn’t worth living,” Schwalbe … Continue reading
Rory Gallagher, a broken down Starship and Owsley’s acid tongue
During my teen years in the late ‘70s, the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh was my musical mecca. From my first rock concert — Rush, Cheap Trick and Max Webster on March 14, 1977 — to myriad other shows, ranging from … Continue reading
Ozzy, 2002-2016
He was a good dog. No, really. A great dog. The last time I sat with tears soaking my keyboard like this, I was writing about the demise of Gilligan, the black-and-tan coonhound from hell. But Ozzy was different. When … Continue reading