Eighty Point Ten

 
I look for him. 
I’m watching the kids gather together their instruments in the hallway adjacent to the double-doors of the high school gymnasium.  Finally, I spot him, a split-second viewing.  He sports a new haircut and an all-black uniform, red-tape stripes adding a splash of color to his shirt.  Then he disappears.
Then he reappears.  Game on.
The [...]

Sunday

 
Wedged between our feet, the stray boxer terrier sleeps while my son and I play cards.  The breeze blows in warm for a mid-February late afternoon, curtains dancing, welcoming the first hint of spring–and the scent of it–into our stale-smelling home,  furnace off.
My son has programmed his Zune to “mix,” and Cibo Matto and The Cat Empire and Streetlight [...]

BODIES…the disgrace: A follow-up

ABC’s 20/20 featured this story on its website Friday (2/15/08), as reported by Brian Ross and the network’s investigative team :
N.Y., China Investigating Black Market in Bodies (Viewer discretion advised.)

Dear Heart

 
I have commemorated forty-plus Valentine’s Days, and frankly, since graduating from grade school, most have left very little to be desired.  So this year, I have decided to forgo celebrating the holiday altogether.
I think it’s a rather smart decision on my part.  Unlike Christmas or birthdays, February 14th is expected to be the one day the [...]

Call me

 
Brian-from-down-the-hall came to my office last week to catch me up on his latest Go Bucks! adventures when he stopped abruptly at the doorway.  “Wow…you’re texting?” he said.  “Impressive.”
“Give me a minute, almost done,” I told him, somewhat surprised that he was surprised at my mad text-messaging skills.
When we bought our cell phones a year-and-a-half [...]

BODIES…the disgrace

BODIES…the exhibition recently opened at Cincinnati’s Museum Center, setting attendance records its first weekend there.  It originally opened in Tampa, Florida in 2005 to the delight of some (who, to date, have collectively shelled out millions of dollars for a look-see) and the dismay of others.
Bodies showcases twenty preserved cadavers of Chinese men who died without the good fortune [...]

Wanted: Mom and Dad, unconditional love

 

Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distilled

Excerpt: ‘Not Quite What I Was Planning’

Edited by Smith magazine
After Harvard, had baby with crackhead.
- Robin Templeton
70 years, few tears, hairy ears.
- Bill Querengesser
Watching quietly from every door frame.
- Nicole Resseguie
Catholic school backfired. Sin is in!
- Nikki Beland
Savior complex makes for many disappointments.
- Alanna Schubach
Nobody cared, then they did. Why?
- Chuck [...]

The Leaving

Little does it matter that it’s 2008, and I’m 45, and she’s 19.  It could very well be 1988, and I’m 25, and she’s a few months old with a pesky, low-grade fever that raised doctors’ concerns enough for us to take her to Children’s Hospital for an ultrasound to make sure it was just a bladder infection [...]

It is my turn

It appears as if I have finally cracked the elusive NPR code that has kept me on the other side of the clubhouse door looking in.  Until now.
When I’m not hacking up hair balls and various and sundry congestive crap  (the flu invaded our home almost a week ago), I am mentally turning somersaults and gleefully dancing across the hilltop with Ruth [...]