I awoke one day to find myself in Boston; I’m still here. I’m told that Memphis is my birthplace and I lived my first 18 months in a Mississippi RFD near Byhalia.  

I want to wake up somewhere else (not Mississippi). I’d rather awake up in New York. I want… Read full post »

1. Read:

• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
• Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick 
• How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
• The Bell Jar by Sylv
… Read full post »

With Christmas and the accompanying Bible-centric shows featured on PBS and basic cable last week, I’ve found myself contemplating the Bible again. Here are a few recent ponderings: 

• If Satan and God were to replay their wager from the Book of Job, could think of a more deservin
… Read full post »

1. I get bored with talking about myself. And I'm lazy. You're only getting 12 things, and you'll like it! (Or maybe I just have low self-esteem and don't think I'm that interesting? Or maybe y'all are just too into yourselves, lol?)

2. During my tenure as an Electrical Engineering major,… Read full post »

A: I wouldn't invite a pedophile or someone who practiced incest into my home for dinner, so I wouldn't invite Rick Warren, someone whom I see as equivalent to a pedophile and incest-or, over for dinner. 

(My deep thought of the day.)  

This is the Christmas Tree at my mother's house:

This is a wax molding of my sister's hand doing the infamous mano cornuta, or "sign of the horns".  This gesture has many interpretations: it's a sign of infidelity, a way to ward of evil spirits, it identifies University of Tex… Read full post »

(This post is largely inspired by and cribbed from a discussion at the fantastic Soul Sides blog.)

If you’re not familiar with Janis Joplin’s jaw-dropper “Cry… Read full post »

This 2006 incident was reported yesterday in the Hair Balls blog of the Houston Press (highlighted with my emphasis):

[A] blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward [12-year-old Dymond Milburn]. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with m… Read full post »

Some songs would better truncated; for instance, I think Beyonce’s latest, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), would be perfect at 1:45 seconds.  This cannot be said about iconic cuts like Aretha’s Respect, Wouldn’t it Be Nice by the Beach Boys, I Wanna Be Sedated by the Ramones,… Read full post »

Sweet Jesus, I wish the pain would stop. My pelvis is seconds away from rupturing. My insides wait in urgent pregnancy to ooze from my core, ready to coat the seats and floor beneath me. Why won’t this fucking train move? It’s time to go.

We’re underneath Boston Common at the… Read full post »

An Open Salon convergence occurred this week: it just seemed like a good time for many of to talk about our dads.  Maybe dad reflections aren't unusual for OS, but, given that my own brief dad sketch struck a chord for some, dad stories have been jumping off the screen at me.… Read full post »

(I’m piggybacking on the conversation started at John Walker’s blog and continued by Greg. This is essentially the same comment I dropped in Greg’s thread.)

So someone doesn’t think making songs qualifies as writing.  Well, what is writing? I&… Read full post »

Hey, remember your first beer? I don’t.

It’s not because of binge drinking and black outs, it’s because before the age of two, my dad started letting me have the last sips of beer to “help him finish” the can.  It’s my sharpest memory of us bodin… Read full post »

Kris Broughton asks in his excellent Open Salon post today, “does the civil rights movement owe the King children?” His question arises amid news that Martin Luther King, Jr’s close friend and comrade-in-arms, Harry Belafonte, wants to auction off some letters written by King t… Read full post »

Smokers are amongst the rudest people on Earth.  We, the free breathers in this society, are constantly being forced to inhale second-hand smoke upon exiting an office building, walking down a city sidewalk, standing on subway platforms, strolling through college campuses and any at other place… Read full post »

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Jay Leno is staying at NBC with a show at 10 p.m. weeknights. The network has signed the "Tonight Show" host to a new agreement that will allow NBC to keep him from going to a rival broadcaster without breaking the network's agreement with Conan O'Brien to… Read full post »

Dear Major Coffee Chain Customers:

Hi.

I am your friendly neighborhood barista.

I hate you.

Like Hezbollah hates the Jews
Like OJ hates Nicole
Like Child Molesters hate Dateline
Like Sarah Palin hates endin’ words with 'g'
I hate you. 

• If you’re one of the rude peeps
… Read full post »

Democracy: from Greek demokratia, from demos ‘the people’ + -kratia ‘power, rule.’

In my Sunday post on Bill Ayers, jane smithie made this observation:

i feel like the whole reason we are in the mess we are in is because people don… Read full post »

If an adult man marries and impregnates a 14-year-old girl, is he a child rapist? What if this union occurred in the 1600s, when in Europe and America this was culturally accepted practice? 

I use this example to illustrate that terms evolve in meaning and as a lead in to Bil… Read full post »