IRRESPONSIBLY GROWN POTATOES 0:00 / 0:00 Irresponsibly Grown Potatoes Recently, as I walked through the produce section of a grocery store, I passed a sign that said, “Responsibly Grown Potatoes.” Naturally, I began to imagine “Irresponsibly Grown Potatoes.” Would they be grown by a chain-smoking farmer, one who flicks his carcinogenic ashes on the crop? […]
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A TALE OF TWO DOGS SADIE 0:00 / 0:00 A Tale of Two Dogs Growing up, my main interactions with dogs involved being chased by the junkyard variety. Years ago, my ten-year-old son, Ian, began lobbying for a dog just before his remaining sibling headed off to college. This last child desperately did not want
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STATION ELEVENA BOOK REVIEW STATION ELEVEN—THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT When a member of our book club suggested we read Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, I felt less than thrilled. I knew the book was about the collapse of civilization after a virus destroys 99% of people on earth. I
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SIN AND A HERSHEY’S KISS I was asked to be a guest contributor to the column THE EIGHTH DAY. They just published my essay, SIN AND A HERSHEY KISS. You may read it below or at the online magazine. When my sons were little, we’d give them chocolate at Easter. Nothing fancy. Usually they’d find
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THE ARITHMETIC OF LOVE Image Courtesy of Streetlight Magazine Streetlight Magazine just released a dramatic performance of my short story, The Arithmetic of Love, read by voice actor, Joe Guay. The story is about how a woman re-builds her life after domestic abuse. Some content may not be suitable for young ears. Here is a link to
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THE SOUND OF A 106 YEAR OLD GIGGLING My grandmother, Benedetta Boccaccio, turned 106 in January. She was born in 1909 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. That year, our country commemorated the 44th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death. On average, a worker earned 22 cents an hour. Sugar cost 4 cents a pound and a dozen eggs would
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OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL MOLD My short story, Our Lady of Perpetual Mold, has just won Best of Fiction 2015 in Across the Margin. Read it here. Or below. Mattie wrote with a black marker on the back of a large torn envelope: Dear Friends and Family, I am tired. I am very tired. She
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CHANNELING YOUR INNER LUDDITE 0:00 / 0:00 Channeling Your Inner Luddite When people ask if I watch much television, I always say no and leave it at that. Maybe they assume I’m too busy with important stuff. But the truth is that I simply don’t have the emotional energy to face the daunting task of
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EXPECTATIONS 0:00 / 0:00 Expectations “Expectations lead to tension, “ said Susan McCulley, my dance instructor. Then she told us to look at ourselves in the mirrored wall. She asked, “Does what you see meet your expectations?” Nope. Not so much. I was expecting to appear a little taller. I stood near the front of
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GLUTEN FREE RANGE BANANAS 0:00 / 0:00 Gluten Free Range Bananas Every morning, I eat a banana for breakfast. My banana is not a gluten free-range banana. Nor is it a banana with a sticker that proclaims, “No tarantulas were harmed in the picking of this fruit.” It is a plain old banana. When
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