I Done Wrote Some Letters
"...letters mingle souls" - John Donne. Since I’m something of a handsome expert on everything, I’m familiar with therapeutic techniques. These are the tools that psychiatrists use to keep you...
Tag: u.s.
To Pick & Choose
after the quiz, looking in a mirror, fussing with her hair waiting at the door for his walk, the dog awaits his leash our old dog runs through fields in his dreams first deep snow-- one can hear the...
God, diabetes, and death in Wisconsin
A few days ago, in Wisconsin, 11-year-old Madeline Neumann died from undiagnosed diabetes. Her parents prayed over her as she deteriorated, instead of taking her to the hospital. According to most...
Heartbreak Hill: will it be Clinton or Obama?
Around mile 20 of the 26 mile Boston Marathon, runners come upon an incline called Heartbreak Hill. They hit a fatigue point at a time when the course calls for some tough slogging before the stretch...
America’s prison problem: if iron bars were cellophane
America loves prisons. Not just in the sense of just thinking they’re a good idea, or that we need to build more of them. No, prisons appear to American voters much the way strippers appear to...
Election 2008, from the mouths of babes
Shockingly, my 15-year old son has recently become interested in politics. We’re not ready to take off the ski hat, cut our hair, pull up our pants, and don a coat and tie like Michael J. Fox in...
Superbowl Sociology and What It Means for the Human Species
The Patriots are 18-1; a man hides his face against my shoulder, because the world had suddenly become too much to bear. A few seconds ago, I was trying to eat two chicken drumsticks at the same...
“LOST”: Sublime Transcendence and… Hey Sawyer, Take That Shirt Off!
A lot of my intellectual friends (the sort of people who, with a dignified cough, announce that they do not "indulge in mass media entertainment," and other, less extreme types) repeatedly ask me why...
Who’s Yo Savior, Biatch!
A few months ago I was standing in line at the post office talking to someone on the cell and every now and then I used an Urdu word. Sometimes when I speak Urdu, I say an English word with a FOB...
Super Tuesday: A Political Perfect Storm
As I recall, the term “perfect storm” was coined in New England in October 1991, when several storm fronts merged to spectacularly clobber the coastline. Now, the American political system this...