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

Aibohphobia is a very rare psychological disorder and is characterized by the unusually fearful reaction elicited by the sufferer upon...

When you look back on your failed romantic relationships (and most of us have had one or two), was there a time when you knew, with...

While I’m off deciding on seven questions to ask my first willing interview victims Bev and Deloney, I thought you might be entertained...

A friend writes: I hadn’t been to a Burger King for months if not a year. So I was flabbergasted today when I saw that they actually now...

I’ve been a Shaker, a snake-handling Pentecostal, and a speaking-in-tongues holy roller. I guess you could say I shaked, rattled, and...

Actually, it’s not a test. It’s a program that looks at your It’s wrong, of course, at least in my case. It says: Likelihood of you being...

I was reading the new David Sedaris book, and thoroughly enjoying it, until I came to a chapter that employed subheads and sub-subheads....

It appears that one of the ways spammers attempt to foil spam filters is to have a paragraph of text, sometimes composed at random, along...

What would you call a fish who is always wary and guarded? . . . (Wait for it . . . ) . . . Herring on the side of caution.

An acquaintance asks, “Why no laughs in the Bible? Didn’t they make the cut?” Bob Hostetler, the author of a number of Evangelical books,...

Tao (pronounded “dow”), as everyone knows, translates roughly to “the Way,” specifically the way water runs downhill, effortlessly,...

Leave it to Tin Pan Alley to turn centuries of ethnic and religious struggles into a catchy ditty. This song, though copyrighted by Jimmy...

As most of you know, I used to live in Vermont. I was only there for two years, but it will forever be Home to me. Feeling “homesick,”...

I may have spoken too soon with yesterday’s post. I just heard an ESPN commentator say an athlete was “chopping at the bit.” (You may...

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and meta 1. Her face was a perfect...

Anyone care for a lovely little duet?

“Green Porno” is a series of very short films conceived, written, co-directed by and featuring Isabella Rossellini. Inspired by the...

My childhood home was not particularly large. A few years ago I happened to see it up for sale (by its fifth or sixth owner, I think),...