We have been conditioned to be suspicious of the amazing. An unnamed National League executive about David Ortiz’s mid-season turn from slump to slugger (as quoted by the New Yorker). But this is all of our attitudes about everything, not just post-steroidal baseball.

The desire to be extraordinary is commonplace.   Oliver Wendell Holmes

Psalm 37:25-26

I have been young, and now am old,yet I have not seen the righteous forsakenor his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously,and his children become a blessing.  I usually read this as an encouragement to pursue righteousness because then I won’t be forsaken or have to beg for bread.  I don’t want […]

The New Fugitives – Ryan Culwell

I sometimes wonder if anybody else in the world has friends like I do.   The New Fugitives – Ryan Culwell

A Poem from Thomas Moor

A poem entitled “Three Things Too Wonderful for Me” A Poem from Thomas Moor

Un Bellini

– excerpted from the short story “Coffee and Milk” by Seth Wieck. On his way back to St. Mark’s he saw the hanging sign for Harry’s Bar, and he needed to sit down.  He pushed through the door and there was the bar on the left with a procession of men in white coats and bowties gathering […]

Personality & the Writer

An article by Tom Jenks linking personality types to writers.  Interesting if you’re interested in that type of thing. Personality & the Writer

I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver and reading James Joyce. Bob Dylan. “I Feel a Change Comin’ On.”  Together Through Life.  

From the Notebook:

Something I started, but haven’t been able to finish: America reclines in the shadowsStoking coals to keep off oncoming nightOh, but a few more hours til my eyelids burn;Til they droop from the dryAnd I must finally admit sleep Submit to sleepAfter dozing in my chairAfter waking with a broken postureAnd a gap in my […]

I got a letter from a young man I had never heard of before and he announced blandly that he was writing stories which he thought were very much like mine and he wondered if I would read them. He was also worried about sending them to editors because they were so very much like […]