Revisiting the Notes on the Columbine Shooting
When Eric and Dylan murdered twelve students and one teacher, we were shocked—just like the two angry killers wanted. They also wanted the day to be remembered forever. And it will be. Because the Columbine High School Massacre is like Elvis Presley. Nothing like it came before and every mass shooting since can’t help but draw inspiration from it.
I Believe... [COPS]
...that a policeman who can’t tell the difference between a taser and a pistol should not have a pistol ever.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | The Dumb Blue Line Edition
Of course Derek Chauvin didn’t take the stand. Derek Chauvin doesn’t stand for anything. He kneels.
A Quarter Flipped for Your Rational Thoughts
The old man was faced with a dilemma. He needed to decide between two options and he was torn. He understood that most decisions in his life often boiled down to two choices: do the thing or not. Sometimes it was a choice of doing one thing or another. A crossroads. This was not that.
When Life Gives You Lemons, Eat Them!!
Ask me about my cryptocurrency — Craig Coins! Theoretically, I’m a millionaire!
A Look at Today’s Approach to Mental Health through the Mind of Hollywood’s Most Convoluted Antihero
Travis opened up and wasn’t taken seriously. In 2021, an era where mental health is more discussed and normalized than ever before, Travis is an extreme and somber expression of what can happen to people who need help but never receive it.
I Believe... [Valid Feelings/Invalid Response]
...that your feelings are always valid but your reaction may not be an appropriate response. Your anger is valid; your follow-up tantrum combined with destroying property is not. Your desire for attention is valid; your follow-up shit-tweeting to get it is not.
Flowers from the Faucet at Midnight - A Poem
I’m nobody and you’re the anybody you’ve always
wanted to be. As long as we’re warm silhouettes in this
picture we have a piece of everything all to ourselves.
The Subjectivity of Historical Revisionism
The issue at hand with much of the faddish push to classify certain artists and historical figures as unassailably evil and worthy of complete erasure is that the most strident either have nothing with which to substitute for the thing they deem canceled or they have replacement art that is not up to the challenge.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of April 4, 2021
Former pig police officer turned murder defendant Derek Chauvin has been taking a lot of notes throughout the murder trial of George Floyd. I bet it’s just the N-word over and over and over again.
RNC Guidelines for Choosing Your Republican Bride
If she’s attractive enough, your constituents will respect her.
The Art of Having a Job and Making a Life at the Same Time
The idea of the side hustle is not part of the new normal we've been predicting at the tail of this bizarre yet completely expected pandemic. The side hustle has always been with us. For all the hand-wringing about the evils of capitalism and greed and discriminating practices in the workplace, none of it is new.
I Believe... [The Bacon of Journalism]
...that the internet is the bacon of journalism if journalism was vegan and temptation to cut corners and justify bullshit got them a taste of that delicious pig.
The Partnership
9:30 am. It was already 95 degrees with a 1000% humidity. And it was only mid-June.
When I moved to St. Louis from Chicago in 1990 to take my first CEO job at The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, I traded a lousy winter for an unbearable summer. 3 dress shirts a day to go with my suit. One more when I had an evening function to attend.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of March 28, 2021
Easter has been cancelled. They found the body.
Why We Gave Our Son Away
Parenthood requires sacrifice. Lots of it. A more optimistic person might say it’s not sacrifice but compromise, and to that I say they don’t know what they’re talking about. Over the last several years, my wife and I have been parents to a wonderful little human named Harrison. He’s intelligent, strong, funny, helpful, and kind. Most of the time anyway. He’s also a three-year-old toddler so he is also erratic, neurotic, sullen, mercurial, and violent. Why, just yesterday, he slapped me across the face after telling him I loved him. In a very tiny nutshell, that right there is parenthood. You give love, you get smacked in the face.
I’m Not Anti-Vax. I’m Anti-THIS-Vax!
I asked to speak to a manager and was rudely told to move along.
The Nine Circles of Offense
Offense is hell. It’s angering and frustrating and confusing and sometimes it feels eternal. Like the actual Hell, which is real because people who trust the Zombie God say so (happy Easter, by the way), there are a variety of meeting places for those who have been offended. And so, I present to you the Nine Circles of Offense. And if you’ve ever been offended, you’ll understandably recognize a few having visited that circle or circles before.
Advice Unsolicited | Ignore Your Social Circle
In this current McCarthyist state we’re playing around in, when met with your self-determined opinion (as opposed to following some strident party line) your social circle will likely turn to hyperbole and scorched earth rhetoric to both shame you into falling in line or paint the podcaster you listen to as evil.
I Believe... [It's the Guns, Morons]
...that the “needs of the many” are answered in bans on automatic, semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns.
Andy was good at his job. And for a nine-month-old baby, he was really good at it.