Not-yet-published pieces, stories, essays, rants, and random strangenesses

The older I get, the more Christmas fills me with a terrible ambivalence. But please note: “ambivalent” doesn’t imply a...

In a fit of I-don’t-wanna-cook-dom, I brought home one of those supermarket rotisserie chickens this afternoon. It was, to quote my great...

November 21, 1920—November 11, 2008

Marguerite Louise Russell Bachman Smith died one year ago today, ten days shy of her eighty-eighth birthday. It was a decent day. I’m...

My parents are appearing in my dreams with disturbing frequency now. After my father died in 1982, I saw him in dreams and dream-states...

Yesterday was my grand-niece Jillian’s first birthday. Six weeks after she was born, Mom got a visit from the whole tribe: my brother...

Today, Judge Judy was eviscerating a teenager who was lying about breaking the window of a pizza shop. She called him a fool, and accused...

In two days I’m heading out of town for the holidays. When Dad died in 1982, Mom and I couldn’t bear to celebrate that first Christmas...

I blame Adam. First he told me about Woot! and then he told me about the Wootalyzer. So it’s all his fault. And if it’s not his fault,...

I am not a particularly heavy sleeper. You could say I sleep like a dog, or a wolf; that is, with one ear nearly always awake, ready to...

My nephew makes a mean Bloody Mary. Everyone loved this year’s Craignog (which, after years of perfecting, I tweaked once again), but...

I was emailing a friend this morning about the first funeral, and then the second funeral, but both times I typed “first wedding” and...

Lots of family and family-of-family; a couple of neighbors; a few very dear friends of mine; a few family friends of my brothers. Flowers...

My new great niece, Jillian, in costume with her mother and father, Jenny and Mike, at her first Halloween party. I thought Jillie might...

I’m a great uncle. (No, not great in that sense—though I am rather fabulous.) My niece Jenny’s firstborn. Entered the world ten days ago....