IN WHICH I learn not quite enough about love.
On the playing field of girlfriend getting, my best friend Steve scored a touchdown his first try.
Reviews, journalism, musings
Dating at thirteen is never what you expect: a mishmash of guesswork and lucky moves.
IN WHICH I learn not quite enough about love.
On the playing field of girlfriend getting, my best friend Steve scored a touchdown his first try.
The first time I met Keith Connes, he was getting raked over the coals.
We were attending a writers group meeting in the Florida retirement community of Sun City Center. The group had been hijacked by Christian fundamentalists.
It’s not often that a wondrously bizarre story drops into your lap.
But when it does, I believe it must get told, and as soon as possible. Have you ever heard of News of the Weird, that syndicated email column begun in the late 80s? It supplies digests of outlandish stories that happened the previous week, like a woman canceling her marriage to a ghost because it “kept disappearing.” Well, this is one of those stories. And it happened to me.
Continue reading “93-year-old Woman Nabbed for Impersonating Glenn Gould”
IN WHICH I learn the Facts of Life. Twice.
Dad picked the wrong time and place to explain The Facts to me. The time, well that’s complicated. I’ll get to that. But the place . . .
Joe Biden’s all wrong when it comes to dealing with Donald Trump.
I’m feeling insecure these days. I’m not sure Joe Biden knows how to handle Donald Trump in the current race for the presidency.
Early last August, Trump was speaking in Clyde, Ohio.
He said this about Biden: “He’s following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns, destroy your 2nd Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. He’s against God.”
Biden’s response: “For President Trump to attack my faith is shameful.” Well of course it was! That was the point. Maybe what Biden should’ve said was, “My faith is my own private business. Like President Kennedy, I believe in the separation of church and state.”
My advice to Joe: spent some time watching reruns of Andy’s Gang, a children’s show that ran from 1955 to 1960. It featured an impish puppet called Froggy the Gremlin. Here is a memorable episode.
Froggy was disparaging bunny rabbits. Andy was appalled.
ANDY: You shouldn’t say that about cute bunny rabbits. They’re so nice. FROGGY: Well, one way to settle that. You see that picture of water over there? ANDY: Yes, a nice frosty pitcher of ice water. FROGGY: Go over to the pitcher. (ANDY does so.) Grab the pitcher tightly by the handle. ANDY: (bewitched) What next, Froggy? FROGGY: I want you to pour the water all over your head. ANDY: Pour the water all over my head. (He does so, then snaps out of it.) Awwww Froggy! You got me all wet! FROGGY: (bounces around on his perch) Haw haw haw! There’s your answer! Haw haw haw!
Don’t play in Trump’s sandbox, Joe. Remember who you’re dealing with.
Had I known I’d be writing about Steve, my first adolescent friend, I would have carried my Brownie Hawkeye camera around with me more.
IN WHICH I learn that friendship is more complicated than enemyship.
I’ve never been friends with anyone in the same way I was with Steve Demetrious. It was one of those “more than” relationships. We were more than schoolmates, more than movie companions, more than teammates, more than confidants.
You may not believe what I’m about to tell you, and I wouldn’t blame you. I have trouble believing it myself, nearly sixty years later.
IN WHICH I learn the subtle side of conflict.
Paul Dabuse was the toughest kid in the seventh grade and I knew this because I once saw him fight. It was enough to brand him in my brain as someone I didn’t want to mess with. Continue reading “Another Bully for Me, Part I: Complications”
This article will be in the “Chapters” section of my memoir-in-progress, Greatest Hits of Junior High, a Memoir of Friends, Bullies, Girls, and Catholics (Illustrated).
Continue reading “Bullyland, Part I: Fast Learner”This article will be in the “Special Features” (appendix) section of my book-in-progress, Greatest Hits of Junior High, a Memoir of Friends, Bullies, Girls, and Catholics (Illustrated).
Continue reading “Why We Listened to Gene Pitney”