“In my stories is where I live.” (2/09)
Sean MurphyOf few writers can it more accurately be said that it is the work, not the life, that matters...That O'Connor was one of the great writers of the 20th century…
Sui generis on the rocks: Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P.
The best way to compliment a writer, as a reader, is to recommend their work to others. That I wholeheartedly do --and have done. The best way to compliment a…
Just Say No or, What We Talk About When We Talk About Sex (In Fiction): Revisited
Lying in bed, thinking about geometry. Like: how my arm next to her ass makes a right angle, or how her legs in either direction form an isosceles triangle (or…
Mark Twain: The Big Daddy of American Letters (Revisited)
On April 21, 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn. Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is…
So It Goes: Reflections on Kurt Vonnegut (Revisited)
April, 2007. Kurt Vonnegut would say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. Often, he was asked:…
When I have fears that I may cease to be…*
I. Til Love and Fame to nothingness do sink When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain, Before high piled…
2010: Time To Die (Part Two: July-December)
2010: In pace requiescat! This one hurt. The spectacular career of Bob Probert had already ended; his life ended entirely too soon (at the absurdly young age of 45), on…
2010: Time To Die (Part One: January-June)
2010: In pace requiescat! We almost made it through January without a major loss, but then, during the darkest and coldest evenings we got word that the reclusive and curmudgeonly…
But I don’t weep, do you? (Three from Bukowski)
It is an enduring tribute to Bukowski's genius that his writings continue to inform, inspire and console. It is our collective tragedy, as human beings, that much of his subject…
They Lived This Way Because Nobody Else Could
My vices protect me but they would assassinate you! That is from Mark Twain, a man who talked the talk, walked the walk, drank the drank and, for good measure, smoked the…