Things A Fifty-One Year Old Man Says
This feels like a broader truth but it might just be me: To be fifty-one is to be grateful, nostalgic, and irritable. I love my life–my wife, my faith (such as it is), my friends, my family, my hound,...
View ArticleThe Young Men and the Sea: Pirate Radio
In 1980, the Ramones asked “Do You You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?” And, yes, I did. I remember my brother Dennis changing the station on the barn radio so the cows could hear “Surfing Safari” and my...
View ArticleI’ve Got A Click Mind: The Shallows, Deep Media, and Five Questions
A mental life increasingly devoted to skimming electronic screens teeming with links and interrupted by beeps might not be ideal. Who knew? Well, most of us suspected, and now an article in Wired has...
View ArticleSeriously, Man? A Serious Man and Sensitive Skin
You would think that the Book of Job meets the Wonder Years would make a pretty interesting movie, especially in the hands of the Coen Brothers, who have shown a bracing disregard for human...
View ArticleEverybody Poops. Including Astronauts.
Thoughts On Space Travel, Books, and Other Antiquities One side effect of being born in 1959 is that the very mention of the word “astronaut” makes me want to do push-ups while conducting a science...
View ArticleMichael Chabon: Boys To Men
There are many good reasons to hate Michael Chabon. He’s achieved literary success and commercial success; he’s funny; his wife has written about how great he is in bed; and according to a friend who...
View ArticleToo Much Of A Good ING: On Visiting An ING Café
When E and I realized what the café was really up to, we first thought “cool.” Or, maybe, “oh clever.” We were in Chicago, tired from walking, but not ready to return to the hotel. As we noticed the...
View ArticleSome Boys: What Is Keith Richards For? Part I
As a seventeen year old enamored of dope and Jack Daniels and let’s just say not fully engaged with the curriculum at Winona Senior High School, I had one opinion of Keith Richards. As a fifty-one year...
View ArticleJerks and Grown-Ups: David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp
The unsympathetic character drives authors nuts. You want to explore the full range of human possibilities but you also don’t want your readers to throw the book across the room while exclaiming, “I...
View ArticleThe Prince of Cathedral Hill
Albert our beloved greyhound arrived in the world on October 27, 1998. He arrived on our doorstep in August of 2003, having raced in Portland and Phoenix as “Smoking Albert,” having once covered 300...
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