There’s no god (or God, if you’re so inclined) in my life.  I would argue (and often do) that there’s no god in anyone’s life.  Just as there’s no Santa in your life, even if you are, like our son, a 4 year-old as convinced of his existence as you are/… Read full post »

As an aspiring screenwriter I try to read as much as possible, not just about film, but anything I can get my hands on.  You never know what you'll come across that will inspire or inform your writing.  I've done my share of reading about writing for film (Field, McKee,… Read full post »

Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.

I'm a bit of a news junky.   My homepage is Yahoo! for two reasons, the first is that I my primary email address is housed there, the second is because I've set it up so that news is fed to me in bite-sized chunks.  I can sift through international,… Read full post »

I have no proof that people in Hollywood, be they producers, directors, or members of the Hollywood Foreign Press or AMPAS or any other organization, are colluding to keep people of color out of movies.  I don't know for a fact that Hollywoodites are telling each other to only… Read full post »

I don't believe in "signs" or "omens" or that "everything happens for a reason."  I believe in cause and effect, momentum, and that you make your own luck (and I use the word luck in only the most abstract sense).  I also believe in coincidence.  Yesterday Penny was talking about an… Read full post »

            Our son turned three last summer, and like respectable parents, we're sending him to a preschool so far above our pay rate that it's making me question my own sanity.  

        &nbs… Read full post »

Since April of 2008 I've been keeping a log of the books I've read. (Why it took me that long to start the list I can't say...it's probably because of my overall lack of organizational skills.)  In 2008 I read 13 books.  In 2009 I read 19.  During the… Read full post »

I woke this morning and, as I always do, went to my Yahoo! homepage where I discovered that the number one search under the "Trending N0w" heading was for "Snooki Polizzi."  I'm a middle-age father of two who watches, on average, only three or four television shows a week, and none… Read full post »

Ask the average person what the most obnoxious holiday in the world is and 82% will answer New Year's Eve.  (I just made that up.)  

Doubtless my distaste (loathing) for this holiday came from my years of working as a waiter, bartender and, worst of all manager (I say worst… Read full post »

For the holidays (yes, I said "the holidays") my three year-old son received, among other things, a train set.  He's been saying for almost a year now that when he grows up he wants to be a train conductor.  He is our first child, and I, in my ignorance assumed that,… Read full post »

I'm not a materialistic person.  Of all my possessions, the ones I value the most are not the most expensive or the ones with the highest re-sale value (though I'll gladly part with my 3,000-strong comic book collection for the right price).  If my house burned down and I lost eve… Read full post »

        No one can believe the house is gone.  Everyone ran into the street, even the neighbors.  Mom can’t stop crying.  Dad lies, saying, “It’s only stuff.”  He holds her.  She holds herself.

They’ll never find the gui/… Read full post »

I recently read an essay by Gore Vidal to one of my English 101 classes. The article, titled Drugs, was originally printed in the New York Times in 1970 and argued that drug prohibition was not only ineffective, but it was, in a word, stupid.  

With the… Read full post »

I know New York City rather well.  That is to say I can get around on the subway without having to check a map more than once.  I knowhow many lines there are (27), how far they stretch (722 miles) and at how many stations (468) they stop. … Read full post »

When I say my parents were Unicorns I'm not being metaphorical - my parents were actually Unicorns.  I have only memories of them; as you can imagine, they don't visit.   I remember their long faces when they had to give me away to a human family; how desperately sad they… Read full post »

Five 20-word love stories. (With special thanks to Abigail Thomas.)

             Dad always said, “I’m not taking care of her.”  He never knew I’d heard him every morning whispering, “Good dog.”

  &n… Read full post »

"How's this look," she asked, her face revealing an unintentionally obvious mix of hope and fear.

"Why is it printed on green paper?" 

"I thought it would make it stand out."

"Stand out from what?"  I was trying to sound professorial, but I feared I sounded… Read full post »

 "...having no remedy for evil but only for the image of it as they conceived it to be."

With this sentence Cormac McCarthy (in The Road) summarizes one of the great motivating factors in human history – Evil; it’s been blamed (by some) for causing every war, pestil… Read full post »

I was cajoled into creating a Facebook account.  I was hesitant, even resistant, for a number of reasons, not the least of which, as quickly confirmed after my first 24 hours, the time suckage that occurs while trying to find enough friends to not feel like a social pariah.

Once "friends"… Read full post »

After recently reading a short piece about the (alleged) separation of church and state in this country (yes, I'm smirking) I found myself reading a few court decisions.  I've had legalistic (though I’m not a lawyer) as well as philosophical (aren’t we all philosophe… Read full post »

I fully admit it - I have an issue with fat people.  That's not accurate; I have issues with fat people.  I don't like the way they look, they sometimes smell bad, I think of them as lazy, overly self indulgent, apathetic and, in a word, gross. 

I'm not a model,… Read full post »

It's well known where I work that I don't believe in God.  (I'd say about half the 100 or so people I encounter on a daily basis know.)  Among most of the people it's hardly an issue.  Among a handful it's become a regular topic of conversation in an enjoyable, bantery k… Read full post »

That Obama sure do talk fancy.   And boy, does it piss some people off.  Or maybe they're just scared.  But I love words.  The better your ability to use them, the more you understand them, the more you realize their true power, the more of my respect you have.… Read full post »