For the most part I’m upbeat and content—I have to be! I try to never sweat the small stuff, and I tend to sail through life brushing off any nonsense that comes my way.
The best car I ever had was totaled, and I went broke on rentals while trying to sort out the mess—to no avail. Hey, no problem!
Student loan debt has nearly doubled thanks to that “low” interest rate. Hey, no problem!
I found out my best friend… Read More ➤
At a time in my life when I hated the world and it seemed to reciprocate beyond all expectation, there was always one bright spot—my silly little brother Kevin. I had been the youngest of three kids for 12 years, but I never really felt the part. It got me no special treatment, and if anything I felt like the quintessential middle child from the beginning—and that made perfect sense when Kevin was born five days after my 12th birthday.
To our delight, Kevin was… Read More ➤
I’ve never been a big fan of Robin Williams’ comedy. I often found his frenzied standup painful to watch and sometimes had to turn from talk shows during his segments, because even his interviews were just too manic during my “wind down” time. I was wary of his movies for the same reason, and I haven’t seen many of them. I have, however, always been a fan of Robin Williams, the man.
No, he wasn’t a hero by any stretch and didn’t accomplish… Read More ➤
Ten years ago today, my father died. But there’s a lot that I didn’t bury with him.
You see, Daddy (pronounced děd-ee for us Mississippi kids) was kind of an enigma. He could be a cruel, selfish, and uncaring drunk, especially on weekends. Or he could be quiet, silly, and even caring at times. And even his bad side varied widely, ranging from simply being absent to purposely destroying any hope for peace and tranquility at home.
Of course there were… Read More ➤
If you’re lucky, you’ll have at least one friend who listens to your every story, joke, worry, and musing, no matter how boring or seemingly trivial. You’re even luckier if they take an interest in everything you do creatively and in your life in general, rooting you on when it seems everyone else is too busy or just doesn’t care enough to take the interest. I was just that lucky when I met a silly old broad from New Jersey. (She loved being called that, so it’s purely complimentary.)
I met Carleen in a car forum called Focus Fanatics—I had a Ford Focus, she didn’t. She had followed a friend of hers to the site after they met on another forum. She was just discovering the Internet and… Read More ➤
If you’re lucky in life, a handful of people change your perspective on the world. Just a handful. For me, those people were mostly professors when I first ventured out into the world and moved 1200 miles away for college…alone. On the surface, that first academic venture failed miserably, as I dropped out after two years. But it was still paramount to making me who I am now.
Those few professors opened up the world for me, to many topics, ideas, and ideologies. Dr. Donna Budani opened my mind to cultural studies after I took a few of her mid-level anthropology courses in the 1991/1992 year. (I hadn’t even been sure what “anthropology” was until then!) She also gave me my first college “A,” at a time when so many other courses were pushing me toward disenchantment, if not misery. Thanks to her, I went on to add a second major in anthropology when I returned to school. Another of those inspiring professors was Dr. Alexander Lehrman… Read More ➤
No words: https://www.weremember.vt.edu/ Read More ➤
We’ll miss you Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries (aka John Inman). Thanks for years and years and years of laughs.
For those NOT in the know, go down to your public library/video store and rent “Are You Being Served.” It’s also available online. Read More ➤
There will definitely never be another Molly Ivins.
“The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.”
“What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that… Read More ➤
