“One mustn’t criticize other people on grounds where he can’t stand perpendicular himself.”
- Mark Twain
I am attracted to American Idol each week not for the sinful pleasure and uncertainty of what will spring forth from rock marionette Steven Tyler’s epic lips. Nor am I riveted by the breathless voluptuousness of Jennifer Lopez (though she is quite ravishing). Continue Reading
We are blind to signs of greatness everyday and we don’t even know it. For me, the embodiment of greatness recently sat next to me in a barber chair.
He was an old man, humble in appearance with a hint of unmistakable distinction. He conveyed a serious, professional demeanor in a long retired executive state. Continue Reading
Sticking with the same political party your entire life—come hell or high treason—is not virtuous or enviably loyal or patriotic. It’s intellectual vegetation, or in the parlance of our times, Dumb and Dumber still.
I hold a deep level of respect for apolitical heretics who prefer staying in life’s bleachers and making fun of the other team’s uniform to playing the game and painting by numb skulls. Continue Reading
I fear being exposed as a fraud—an intellectual fraud—not quite smart enough to hold my own in the company of degreed and highly degreed writers. I carry the weight of this fear mostly because I grew up a dumb jock in a household of non-readers. Continue Reading
I once had a friend who asked me if he and his wife should adopt a child. They were in their 40s and well-to-do. My wife and I had just adopted a toddler from Romania and apparently Rich thought I would be a good source for parental advice. Continue Reading
I’m faced with a self-inflicted conundrum and I’m not sure how to lick it. I simply adore random story collections. So much so, that each night in my after-hour publisher pajamas, I shuffle through several rough manuscript drafts and bounce from piece to piece; Continue Reading
May 15, 1856: The would-be birthday of American author L. Frank Baum, the wonderful wizard behind Oz.
"I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed.”
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