This is Auntie Jane, a beautiful angel on earth here in the little village of Volcano, on the Big Island of Hawai’i.  She was one of the first people I met my first weekend here. The Sunday morning Farmers Market at the Cooper Community Center is the big local… Read full post »

First light at Loti’i was a little after 5am, my first morning in the rainforest. A distant rooster began to crow, then hit the snooze alarm for a half hour before he began his work in earnest. Unexpectedly and uncharacteristically I was… Read full post »

I'm going holo holo* the next few days. Mosying on out of Austin this afternoon, heading for Seattle this evening to break bread with a friend. Then in the morning the big bird will fly to Kona, where I'll arrive at noon. Meeting new old friends in Hilo in… Read full post »

Watching the coverage of the Chilean miners’ remarkable rescue, I was reminded of the shortest, most dangerous career of my life, as a hard rock miner high in the Rockies, working for the Climax Molybdenum Co. For a while I got a kick out of telling… Read full post »

 The firethorn berries have popped into color the last few days, and a passing mockingbird stopped by this morning to check out the progress. After tasting a few, he proclaimed "ALMOST READY" in a gregarious burst of musical virtuosity. Pleased with himself, and rightfully so, he flew of… Read full post »

Waking into the crisp morning, the sights and smells of fall are everywhere.

A huge Monarch butterfly, 40 feet up, is hang gliding southward against the gentle breeze. The orange of its backlit wings is explosive against the clear blue sky. 

  Even higher,… Read full post »

 While most Americans, in polls, agree that "New Posts," "Top Rated," and "Updates" are good, the shortfall and need remain overwhelming, especially on weekends, so instead of opting-in to be a Follower, as is the rule now, everyone should be, under the rule, a Default Receiver… Read full post »

Sugar Bubba (Category: Men Seeking Women)

Attractive, professional, well-spoken, nice-dressed 65-year-old man seeks sugar mama. I live in Austin on a 3rd floor unit with fantastic views of I-35. The unit also features very discreet parking between the pickup trucks. I am looking for exclusi… Read full post »

A very large disturbance in The Force recently has been traced to a string of consternations and contusions over what IS and IS NOT proper behavior on Open Salon. 

The subsequent warring between the camps, it seems to me, is largely due to a lack of clarity about what the… Read full post »

In honor of National Punctuation Day (my late mother would be so proud)  http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/ (and some of youse moran's would do well to bookmark this site), I offer for your consideration what may be the most elegant but underappreciated punctuation mark ever de… Read full post »

1. Lingerie & pajamas. Bullshit. What do you really sleep in?

I prefer to sleep nude, but my back has a tendency to stiffen up if it caches a draft, and I don't like tracks on the sheets, so a t-shirt and underwear does it for me. 

2. What’s… Read full post »

1)      I am certified in four different bodywork disciplines, three of which are legal.

2)      I won a Science Fair medal in 7^th grade with my project to manufacture rubies using an electric arc. Years later it became a viable commercial pr… Read full post »

 Jonathan Franzen reads from "Freedom" at Book People, Austin, Texas, September 17, 2010

When writing about something painful, Jonathan Franzen says, he know he’s got it right when he reads it and laughs. Why? “Because I’m the mediator between the raw experience and the… Read full post »

 I’ve been bothered by lower back pain for weeks. I thought I had pulled something when I moved out of my house a few weeks ago. Yesterday the pain got worse, a lot worse, and I was nauseous, so I saw my doctor, who promptly had me wheeled into the… Read full post »

 Slice of Heaven in a Can (SOHIAC) is my project to develop an inexpensive, minimalist solution to the issue of homelessness due to disaster or societal conditions, by reusing surplus ISO shipping containers as a basic construction module.  

Since Roman times, and perhaps befo… Read full post »

 The first rule of Boner Club is: You don’t talk about Boner Club around girls.

The second rule of Boner Club is: You don’t talk about Boner Club around girls.

So it’s no surprise that women have so many misconceptions about men carrying wood. On the principle… Read full post »

She was meaty, just the way he liked them

And she opened easily, to his practiced touch

His tongue found her oily pearl

And rolled it around as her flesh quivered

He drank deeply of her briny, tart juices

Blissfully took her in a huge swallow  

Then, momentarily… Read full post »

 In the course of my efforts to curtail gang violence in Seattle I worked with several organizations of Pacific Islanders. Until then I didn’t realize they have fairly large populations in Seattle, and that their kids are all considered youth at risk. The Samoans, for example… Read full post »

 Slice of Heaven in a Can (SOHIAC) is my project to develop an inexpensive, ecologically sound, minimalist solution to the issue of homelessness due to disaster or societal conditions, by reusing surplus ISO shipping containers as a basic construction module.  

Providing safe s… Read full post »

 "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." 

                                               ~ Socrates (no, not really his quote)

Lov… Read full post »

Michael Landon had the courage to publically draw back the shameful yellow curtains surrounding the misery and persecution of being a bed-wetter, and for that he will always be a hero to me.

Now I’m stepping forward myself, to unconceal an even deeper tragedy, surrounded by even more s… Read full post »

 I never paid much attention to what my mother said, so when she said “Keep making faces like that and your face will get stuck,” I didn’t believe her. But on that point it turned out she was right, darn it all. And then Orson Welles came along and turned… Read full post »

 Slice of Heaven in a Can (SOHIAC) is my project to develop an inexpensive, minimalist solution to the issue of homelessness due to disaster or societal conditions, by reusing surplus ISO shipping containers as a basic construction module.  

Access to a clean, safe water supply is o… Read full post »

Crazy About Meat

I grew up in Protestant Indiana, which meant that we ate all the major food groups: pork, chicken, beef, fish. Plus the usual side dishes. But dinner was defined by the meat we’d eat, or on a few rare occasions by the conspicuous absence of meat… Read full post »