Advice From a Dimwitted GenXer to Himself
Success comes from a cocktail of luck, timing, and the willingness to be completely reckless and thoughtless and bold.
In Defense of Donald Trump
You can’t spell “liberal” without “lie”. LI-b-E-ral!
I Believe... [First the Show, Then the Convictions?]
...that if, at the end of the January 6 Commission’s hearings, no one significant goes to prison, it was all just a campaign commercial.
[EXCERPT] Gorski and The Goat
On a urine-stained olive green cot in the back room of Rosalda’s Cantina in Ciudad Juarez, I came to. Blacked out. Again. A smell I couldn’t quite put a finger on. Rank breath, a muffled gurgle and what felt like whiskers. I hope not our hostess, or worse, one of her chicas.
American Jobs—Selling Amoco MultiCards to Old Women
"But doesn't it bother you any? I kind of feel like crap after a shift. I keep thinking about all of these poor people who can't afford these things and that we just hammer them over and over until they sign up for the card to be polite. I dunno. It seems... unethical or something."
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of June 5, 2022 — Cannes, France Edition
Everyone over here looks like a Bond Girl or a guy who sells you the best drugs.
The North Star
The Truth Will Set You Free...
Here it comes, kid. For some time upcoming, you'll pass those places and moments when things were shiny and wonderful but the patina of betrayal will be right there to make each one bittersweet. Sonofabitch, I hate this part.
Batman Eating A Grape
It’s Batman. Eating a grape.
The Foley Artiste
She wanted to be lusted after, to be prey to the kind of men who fetishized her. She understood that kind of power over men. Her husband was not susceptible to that sort of control and, she imagined he might not be even if his eyes functioned.
I Believe... [School Shooting Drills]
...that school shooting drills are exactly the same as ‘duck and cover’ procedures and the air masks on airplanes—placebos to make us feel safe in a world designed by nature to kill us all.
A History of Rails and Waiting - An “El” Train Diary
Not too long after that I got my friend Jaz, who’d grown up in the suburb of Berwyn fer petesakes, to cross from one car to the next via the emergency doors at each end while the train was in motion. We had no reason whatsoever to move seats, but she’d never done it before and the cheap thrill put a wide smile on her face and lights in her eyes I couldn’t resist indulging.
The Dumbass Tree
The tree loved the woman but even more than the woman
The tree loved the idea of being in love.
What the tree didn't know
Because trees were long on roots but fucking short on brains
Was that woman only loved two things:
Herself and immediate gratification.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of May 29, 2022
It’s an unfortunate thrill to be living through the results of humanity’s failure.
The Perils of Outer Space
Captain Jason Blue had been floating in space for nearly ten hours. He was going to asphyxiate in his suit in a matter of minutes.
Common Sense GOP Solutions for Avoiding Mass Shootings
Schools should have only one door, one classroom, no windows, and, most importantly, no books.
Collateral Damage Group Session
“I just don't want to lose what little bit of myself I still have pursuing something that will only leave me with nothing in the end."
I Believe... [Utopian Solutions]
...that utopian solutions and dreams are super until you understand that unless programmed robots control it humans will inevitably fuck it up.
Finding Geena
When someone tells a lie like this for so long to so many people, the lie becomes a habit and habits become addiction.
If There is No Evil, How Can There Be Good?
"We fat all creatures else to fat us,” Hamlet states, “and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That’s the end.”
The first chapter of an in-progress novel.
“The voice began on a Tuesday morning while Monte Walsh was standing in his kitchen, holding an unopened package of bacon over the garbage can.”