(Photo from the public domain).  

It is Sunday morning and we are deep into our respective rituals:  The Norwegian listens to 103.7 The Buzz, to worship at the altar of local talk-show host Bill Vickery.  I read OS and work on whatever little projects I’ve got going on in… Read full post »

I’ve been sort of absent from OS the past couple of weeks.  It’s a matter of things piling up that interrupted my momentum.  The Norwegian and I went to Memphis during the last weekend in March to celebrate our first anniversary.   Then I got/… Read full post »

Without fail, every single Northerner I’ve ever brought home to Arkansas thinks I’m insane the first time I mention chocolate gravy and biscuits.   They imagine some bizarre combination of saw tooth gravy with chocolate mixed in, or maybe country gravy with cocoa o/… Read full post »

Okay, so maybe this is because my experience is in academia and I have a soft spot for writer’s conferences.   Maybe it’s because I’ve been a member of some other online communities that regularly host community events.  Either way, I’m wondering if anyone in th… Read full post »

When I first read the question “what is your ultimate vision for this country as it relates to sustainable mobility?” I thought, “define ‘sustainable mobility’ for whom?” 

For the average middle-class American living in suburbia, this means one thing. For a r… Read full post »

            Bar, my Appaloosa gelding, slowly trotted a right turn back toward the house. His hoofs thudded against the half-muddy lawn like little thunderclaps. It was a crisp afternoon in Dover, Arkansas. I was eleven years old, and  I w/… Read full post »

Or How Why I Call Myself a Hillbilly 

Look, I get it.  We’re all educated and enlightened people here and we all understand the power of the politically correct shame.   More than once on my blog, I’ve been accused of perpetuating stereotypes by/… Read full post »

Me on Wall Street January of 2008, rubbing the bull's balls for luck, or wealth or whatever one rubs them for. 

Thinking about the recession has me thinking about how lucky I am, a lesson my parents taught me by accident:  They  let me live with eight Russian men… Read full post »

I grew up in a town where the phrase “religion is the opiate of the masses” is pretty apropos.  Teachers preached to us regularly in the hallways of our public school, there were regular conversion experiences in the choir room where the Student Chri/… Read full post »

After I first starting getting really sick to stomach, everyone asked me all the time if I was pregnant. I carried around Pepto-Bismol and crackers and sprite.  I regularly turned green and ran off to the bathroom.  I guess it looked like a good time in my life to be pregnant… Read full post »

I turn 35 today. 

I was conceived in a trailer house somewhere outside Little Rock after a Grand Funk Railroad concert in February of 1973.  I’m pretty sure it’s the same concert where the guys from GFR met Connie Hamzy, who Wikipedia calls “… Read full post »

Your Norwegian Uncle turns 37 in a few days.  As his gift this year, I decided that I would give his bathroom a makeover.  It's a very small space, and it has to double as the guest bathroom and the laundry room (our house is a tiny 1240 square feet).  That… Read full post »

In response to Kerry's Open Call on interesting facts about this election, I started playing around with the New York Times Election Results maps. 

I found out that, if you take the NYT's word for it, Arkansas actually turned a pretty deep red this election. In fact, the Republicans overall… Read full post »

I didn't make it to the great Auntie Family Halloween Bash this year. Your Norwegian Uncle got word on Thursday last that he had to have surgery right away (he's fine, just a little discomfort for a few weeks).  So we figured it might not be so good for him to… Read full post »

I'm late to the OS Party, but here goes.  

I don’t tell this story often.  I only tell it to people I really trust, because I’m afraid of being seen as a wacko.  I have enough traits that paint me with that particular brush; I don’t need any extra help. … Read full post »

I am tired. My bones ache, I can’t get rid of this pain in my left temple. My shoulders feel like I’ve been carrying around a 50 pound pack for days. My feet hurt no matter what shoes I wear.  I fight getting up in the morning, on those mornings where… Read full post »

No one understands the plight of the big footed woman.   Most men with normal foot size have no idea how hard it is to find fashionable, reasonably priced women’s shoes above size 10.  I wear a size 11.  I’m also five feet, nine inches tall.   Shoe shopping w… Read full post »

Dorinda Fox contacted Amy Fuji and I with the idea to write a series of posts about our shared native state, Arkansas.  It was prompted by something she said in a reply, “Arkansas is such a lovely place as far as physcial beauty but also in its people. I consider it a blessi… Read full post »

From the Saginaw, MI  News:  

THOMAS TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Police say a Michigan man has been arrested after "receiving sexual favors from a vacuum" at a car wash.

The Saginaw News reports the 29-year-old Swan Creek Township man was arrested Thursday in Saginaw County's Thomas Townsh/… Read full post »

For something entirely different, the following is not from a series of anything. It just is.  

Tomorrow night, a friend is checking into rehab. I know exactly what she’ll experience because I have been a patient in the same hospital. The entrance is at the back of a boxy administration… Read full post »

*Note: My “nieces” are actually my best friend’s daughters. They’ve grown up with me as their second “Aunt,” and I try my hardest to be a good one, when I can see them. They live three hours away, up in Fayetteville. This is the first of a series of letters… Read full post »

I'm really amazed at the response my last post got from this community. Either ya'll are the best blog readers on earth, or I touched a common nerve. I tend to believe it is the former, after reading through Open Salon for a couple of days now. I'm hooked!… Read full post »

Normally, I blog over at my website.  But that blog is mostly about my home state of Arkansas. One thing I try not to do there is to talk too much about my personal life.   It's the sort of blog that people I work with are likely to stumble across.  I… Read full post »