One of my proudest moments recently came during last October. My son, Liam, has been dipping his toe into the murky pool of horror movies. During dinner, he told me he was ready for one of the big ones, the OG Halloween. Did I want to watch it with him? Well. In a moment of […]

When my brother was drinking himself to death, he was alone. He didn’t die in the shabby Tulsa house he rented. That came a few days later in the hospital as his organs shut down, one by one. But I suspect there was a moment earlier on, it could have been months or years, where […]

As I write this on Wednesday, December 14, a few of the main news stories of the day on The Washington Post are: An article about how Tijuana has evolved into a trafficking hub for fentanyl The arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and the various politicians he allegedly donated […]

To look at Gordon’s back is to see a map of a country forged in brutality. He was an enslaved person and, in March of 1863, he managed to escape from the plantation where he was imprisoned. After a harrowing forty mile journey, he reached Baton Rouge and the safety of the Union Army.  Two […]

What could you do with one hundred thousand dollars? If you wanted to be insufferably responsible, you could make a solid down payment on a house, begin a solid college fund for your kid, or generously help one (or several) charities. Those are all mature, respectable suggestions. They’re also boring. For starters, you could buy […]

You don’t get to look like me without being a foodie. I’ve joked with my wife that she married a man who will never have rippling muscles or six-pack abs. It’s all because I love food. The preparation of it, the eating of it, and the reminiscing of it. There’s something special about it, and […]

The act of making a movie is the act of solving an escalating series of fiendishly difficult problems. If there’s a story problem the dumbass screenwriter missed, you have to fix it. If your lead actor can’t perform the role the way you need, you need to handle it. If you run out of money […]

Empathy is in short supply these days. It seems that way, anyway. Horrifyingly large numbers of so-called Christians not only allow bullying but embrace it and cheer it on. People who claim to have an evolved outlook on…well, everything, also lean hard into being judgmental and positively flee from the concept of forgiveness. It’s all […]

A wee bit of Googling tells me that some of the leading causes of death here in the good old U.S. of A. are heart disease,  COVID-19,* kidney disease, strokes, and cancer. Sure, accidental death cracked the top 10, but the majority are medical issues that tend to take us out slowly but surely. That […]

Some friendships are lifelong. Those people who will tolerate your foibles if you’re lucky enough to connect with them. They’ll have your back. You’ll have a real and genuine bond with them, the kind of bond that can weather years and endure drama. I have a few people like that in my life and I […]