July 17, 2013
But There Are Also Unknown Unknowns
Gabriel Roth’s restaurant reviews, written between 2003 and 2006 for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, are as good as any I’ve ever read. They’re the kind of pieces you go […]
July 10, 2013
Clerihew Day: The Return
I’ve been away from this blog for two and a half years, and it would be only a slight exaggeration to say I’ve spent most of that time writing clerihews. […]
December 31, 2010
Under & In, Through & Through, Over & Out
Goodbyes are no fun — so I’m going to mostly skip them. But I wanted to use the last of my seventy-three posts on this blog to thank Tyler, for […]
December 30, 2010
Double Double, Part 2 (Abecedarians)
The Best American Poetry 2010, guest edited by Amy Gerstler, is chock-full of dark delights: Sandra Beasley’s “Unit of Measure,” Lynn Emanuel’s “Dear Final Journey,” Gabriel Gudding’s “And What, Friends, […]
December 24, 2010
“You wanna see a fire truck? Burn up your house.”
It’s my daughter Zia’s first Christmas, which means — spoiler alert! — I finally get to play Santa. We have a foot-high rosemary “tree” and a gas-lit fire; we have […]
December 13, 2010
Lucy, the Way of Light
It’s December 13th — the Feast Day of Saint Lucy, patron saint of writers — and I’m surrounded by half-opened boxes of Nutty Bars, Fig Newtons, and “Lemonhead & Friends.” […]
December 1, 2010
Today, 70 Years Pryor
Had he not died in 2005 of cardiac arrest, Richard Pryor would have turned seventy years old today. He survives in countless ways — in video clips from The Ed […]
November 25, 2010
Everywhere in Enormous Numbers Turkeys Will Be Dying
It’s 1:30 in the morning in Michigan — so, Thanksgiving, technically — and my tiny, flailing daughter is wide awake. I do what I can — I talk to her […]
November 22, 2010
Double Double, Part 1 (Dactyls)
I’ve been seeing double lately — which, considering the assignments I’ve been giving my students, makes sense. One class has been writing double dactyls; the other class, double abecedarians. My […]
November 6, 2010
Thinkin’ About Lincoln (and Whitman, and Obama)
It’s an odd election that finds both Lincoln and Whitman coming up short and that imagines Slurpees (“delicious drinks,” according to Obama) as a means to bridge partisan differences. And […]
September 29, 2010
McGonagall Is Dead! Dead, Dead, Dead!
William McGonagall — “The Great McGonagall,” “Poet and Tragedian of Dundee” — died on this date in 1902. He was buried in a pauper’s grave — and now, more than […]
September 20, 2010
All Apologies, or, Watching and Wondering
This past Friday I attended Yom Kippur services with a Jewish Renewal community in Ann Arbor. Judaism isn’t my tradition — I was raised a Unitarian, which, in my experience, […]