This time of year, I can become a touch weary with the wearing o’ the green. The sweeping and wonderful Irish folkloric culture seems a bit, well, debased in March, with the fairy folk diminished to cartoonish leprechauns and powerful old tales reduced to green...
I had an event the other night with our adjustable bed. I have re-written that sentence four times so far. I had an encounter. An incident. A surprise. A shocking surprise. A skirmish. Something that woke me the hell up. Something that brought me bolt upright except...
There are some had-been-going-moribund terms reappearing in our daily discourse over the last few years. Grifter. Shyster. Flim-flam man. There is wide public use; there are obvious public examples. Plural. Yet, somehow, these terms seem too small for the present...
There are so many fine ways to spread joy. When the days are short and cold, without even a softening layer of snow, it is good policy, survival policy, to seek them out. Here’s one; you’re welcome! National Dress Up Your Pet Day is coming, but I don’t need a special...
It’s deep winter now, when it is sometimes best to rest in the words of others. William Carlos Williams (1893-1963) is said to have been a leading poet of the Imagist movement. I don’t need to study up on that to love this poem. Winter Trees All the complicated...
Everyone will recognize Santa here, but I have a seven year old friend who can name all the others in this Oz illustration; we spent a happy hour not long ago discussing who was who, and how much fun it would be to be seated at that table. The piece was drawn 110...
