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

I met the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, the retired bishop of the Episcopal Church Diocese of Newark (based in Newark, New Jersey), way...

No real blog post from me this time, just my urging you to read Errol Morris’s interview with Ricky Jay in today’s New York Times, “Seven...

Indigo Bunting just wrote about the annual migration of Canada Geese up in Vermont. It reminded me of Adam’s poem about our own seasonal...

When I went on the Big Trip back in ’91 (and yes, I will be continuing that saga shortly, I promise), I had the notion of setting up a...

by Nicholson Baker, The New York Times Ammon Shea, a sometime furniture mover, gondolier and word collector, has written an oddly...

by Mary Oliver Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean— the one...

Scientists say the Earth is humming. Not just noise, but a deep, astonishing music. Can you hear it? By Mark Morford San Francisco Gate...

In years past, I’ve circulated among my email friends and acquaintances—or rather, re-circulated—one of my favorite holiday essays, David...

By BENEDICT CAREY The New York Times | July 31, 2007 In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a...

Not to mention the question of which way it goes. . . . by Tim Folger, Discover Magazine No one keeps track of time better than Ferenc...

by Jernigan Pontiac, Seven Days It dazzles me, the commonality of message among wise-men and women the world over. From the Dalai Lama to...

How poetically appropriate that the End of Humanity should come from such a tiny, sweet source By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist...

by Allan Coukell | Published in the June 2005 issue of The Walrus magazine Hovsgol Province, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia—On a sunny afternoon,...

A propos of the news that Mayan priests purified a sacred archaeological site to eliminate “bad spirits” after President Bush’s visit, SF...

From today’s Mumbai (India) Financial Express newspaper. Shamanism has more to it than just rituals that look exotic in documentaries by...

Justin Erik Halldór Smith (no relation) is a writer. I want to be such a writer someday. He is also a professor of philosophy at...

Just because I’m having trouble finding time to put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have something...

Put my girth together with my love of wordsmithing and you might surmise that I am a fan of gastronomic literature. And you’d be right....

by Jason Godesky, The Anthropik Network I’m dazzled by so much that Jason Godesky has to say, but this article is, to my mind, one of his...

by CHARLES SIEBERT, The New York Times Published: October 8, 2006 “We’re not going anywhere,’’ my driver, Nelson Okello, whispered to me...