The Black Dog Shall Have His Day

I have just added an article that was a speech I delivered for Toastmasters. The speech is called: “The Black Dog Shall Have His Day,” and is memoir-ish and the kind of thing I like to blog about. It’s about an aspect of my emotional intelligence that was, heretofore, only privy to my classmates from … Read more

A Short, Sad Tale

The estate sale started at eight a.m. on a Saturday morning. Things had been pulled out of the house and arranged on tables. People from all over the neighborhood came to see what was there, the things from the house that no one visited. There were other people, too, just for the sale. But those … Read more

When It Rains

The first short story I ever got all the way through and kind of liked was “When It Rains“. I had written a few others before then, and even entered one of them in the Hopwood Awards annual contest at the University of Michigan, but I didn’t win. At the time, I was very hopeful: … Read more

Pig Roast

When I was but a boy, the West Side Market in Cleveland was a place of great mystery. My mother spoke of it in hushed awe as if it were sacred, or at least nearly sacred. The vendors there carried the run of the mill produce and meats of any market, but also some of … Read more

Practical Jokes Not to Play

I have never had good luck playing practical jokes. They generally backfire, and I feel awful. I feel awful right now. When I was four years old, my mother took me along shopping. I thought it was great sport to hide from her while she shopped. I would duck in and out of the clothes … Read more