There is a longstanding phrase that sums up the impulsivity of youth: Young and stupid. It was likely suggested by some parent dazed by their child’s disregard for personal safety and lack of good judgment in the face of the obvious. I’m not saying that those in the older ranks can’t come up with...
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The noise and clouds of rising smoke have left this year’s 4th of July celebration in their wake but it seems that every Independence Day I’m reminded of my endless fascination with blowing up shit when I was a kid. I was a pyrotecnic nutball, just wondering, mind you, what would happen if this or that...
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“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Remember that golden moldy from Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 inauguration speech in the midst of a bank panic (run on banks)? This was sage advice from a leader who was talking the country down off the ledge. Rather a contrast from a recent administration that...
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I routinely pump my mother for stories of my biological father (#1) because I never got to know him and I think that knowing something of his character gives me an insight into mine. Of course, ‘warts and all’ is the only worthy approach since good without the bad would present a distorted portrait...
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I ask you this in all sincerity because it’s important that somebody get you; understand your special crazy shit, your neurotic tendencies, your failings, your successes. It is psychologically beneficial that somebody, somewhere knows the you behind the facade. So, who gets you? Usually, this other person is a mate, otherwise why would somebody...
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As anyone who knows me knows (is it you, dear reader?) I am nothing if not perfectly accurate in my recollection and honest to a fault. Knowing, in my mind, this truth, I’ve set forth the following account of a particular Mother’s Day in 1954 where, wishing to make it a truly special day,...
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I seriously doubt that many young men would have resisted a just and necessary cause but it was clear, except to those with a blind allegiance, that the Vietnam War, this clash between the Communist-run North and the U.S. backed South, was a civil war unworthy of our intervention and loss of life. Like...
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Your probably going to read this and think that I’m some kind of vanity whore but I see it as a breakdown in the hairstyling industry, causing severe Brillo Padnian Disorder. Now that’s not an officially recognized medical affliction and, in fact, it comes completely from my imagination and yet it concisely explains the...
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This is a story I’ve not resisted in telling so much as having found myself unable to tell for a very long time now. It’s one of those junctures in life that struggles to be defined and, for the lack of explanation, defines itself as nothing more than tragedy. We always want clarity…a reason…a...
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In the summer of 1973, preceding my senior year in college, I arranged a special sociological field work project to take place in and around Duluth, Minnesota. The topic of my research paper was the American Indian and the recent cultural clashes with U.S. authorities and, moreover, the current state of reservation affairs. For...
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