My Best Friend Came Home
I’ve spoken of this before; I can’t overemphasize the importance of it. For those of us who believe in God, He has two fundamental ways...
Not a Wise Crack
The bag boy had accidentally dropped a gallon of water on the floor and it exploded like a miniature H-bomb early this afternoon. The...
Recycling Saved My Life (sort of…)
Long before it became fashionable to separate garbage from glassware, and hamburgers from hand grenades -- I was recycling (in a...
As Good As It Gets
Furiously focused for the count. (You could fry eggs on that kind of heat.) Ready, Set, Go! Born again on the relative wind. Frantically...
Charles and Mary
As a child I had no control over any aspect of my life. My parents made every decision for me, which I imagine was not too unusual for...
Kis-Lyn
Where/When I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania in the 50’s, parents only needed to whisper a single word to keep unruly children in...
Sleeping on the Job
One of my earliest memories after we moved to Pennsylvania in 1954 was looking out the kitchen window and watching Donna Rovinsky, the...
Washing Sheets
You know that sound. The one your washing machine makes when you’ve got sheets inside and they wrap themselves around the spindle –...
Who’s On First?
Back in 1970 during my third year of college at Syracuse University -- I was carrying the twin majors of photojournalism and philosophy....
Fortune Smiles on Those Least Prepared to Accept the Challenge
It was sometime in the early 80s when I began to dabble in computer technology, specifically in designing software. Before user groups,...
Do As I Say, Not As I Do…
Hypocrisy is the most despicable of all human traits because it attempts to justify immoral acts by pretending to be moral. I was only 14...
At a Loss for Words
I have never been at a loss for words during my life. Whether it be an answer to a question, a snappy comeback, or a quick-witted...
Higher Than I’d Ever Been Before
The mood in the plane was jovial, like teenagers out on their first date. We were about to do something that had never been done before...
A Ten
I find it curious that we use the same number to define the most beautiful woman imaginable, and also the worst possible pain we have...
Duzrd Doors (Jim Uses Them)
Most of my nightmares are so vicious, so despicable, and so patently evil that they would make “Nightmare on Elm Street” look like a...
In Your Own Backyard
I've always enjoyed challenging myself to ‘see’ as hard as I could in my own backyard first -- before wandering out into the world to...
“I Wanna Get Laid”
In 1993 I was working as a long-term substitute Language Arts teacher at Jefferson Middle School in Indio CA. Teaching was a very natural...
Drawer of Dreams
When I was a child, mom and dad would take me to New York to visit my grandparents. They lived in Brooklyn (Bedford-Stuyvesant) and were...
A Tuna Fish Sandwich Saved My Life
My father and his brother both landed on Omaha Beach on June 6,1944. He was 19 years old. When I think back to where I was (and who I...
Make it hurt
The simple fact that prison is not the most tedious and boring place in the world (as it was through the 1950’s) is an indication of why...