So I'm eleven, or twelve, which puts this solidly back in the mid 60s. High noon, and walking across a searing stretch of sand at Long Island's Robert Moses State Park. A dollar in my swimsuit's hip pocket, a hot dog as my goal and a hundred yards of hot beach… Read full post »

Wet and gray outside; inside, in the quiet den of an art museum, me holding back tears and just staring at a 2000-year-old bowl I'll never understand.

Later, at a pond's edge, focusing, catching the flash of a kingfisher, and knowing what it is before I can bring up the binocs...

Ignoring the… Read full post »

I am -- and have admitted to my own soul to be for quite some time now -- an addict. I do it more later in the week, when things are tougher. But now, mother of all crap, my addiction follows me to places public (like restaurants, malls) and places not… Read full post »

It's a weird sort of on/off, connect/disconnect, when you hear those familiar voices on CNN, MSNBC, and the rest... And they're urgently telling you, well, nothing really new yet about the latest crazy killer scenario now two hours in the making, and taking place on the screen before your eyes, and..… Read full post »