A week ago I put forth a proposition:  pick a writer on Open Salon and interview him/her.  Talk about writing,  life, sex, religion, money, politics: whatever tickles your fancy.  Below are the results, organized alphabetically by interviewee.  

 Open… Read full post »

Shaggylocks:
Hey guys, thanks for coming. I, uh, guess now is as good a time as any to come clean: I've gathered us all together under false pretenses. Sheldon, I know you came expecting a Bea Arthur career retrospective, and Steve, I know you came expecting an intervention for Shel's Bea Arthur… Read full post »

On March 14^th, 2009, Dorinda Fox put out an open call that rocked Open Salon to its core: the Open Salon Interviews.  At the time there was one particular blogger who was garnering quite a bit of negative attention within the OS community, and the call for interviews was an attempt… Read full post »

The embroidery on your green polo shirt may proclaim otherwise, but you, sir, are no sandwich artist.

Trust me; I know a thing or two about sandwich artistry.  When I was in middle school, I embarked upon what would become a six-year quest to create the Perfect Tuna Sandwich. … Read full post »

Kids these days, with their sexting and their Axe body spray and their Lady Gaga, amirite?  I've long known that there's what the kids are into these days and there's what I am into these days and ne'er the twain shall meet, but this recruitment video, produced by the Yale admissions… Read full post »

Three of the Greatest Film Not Available on DVD (Now available on DVD)

Let’s not kid ourselves: injustices abound in our modern, imperfect democracy.  Some, like the corporate financial influence in our electoral system, are big.  Others, like my brother Greg always getting to ride s… Read full post »

I'm currently enrolled in an intensive three week course worth four credits, which has (surprisingly!) gobbled all of my free time. Eek!  So until I can get back into the OS saddle, feel free to enjoy this little gem of a film.  It was produced by a company called… Read full post »

If you clicked on this post thinking I might be writing something to add to the canon of wit and interest that is Open Salon, then I'm sorry to inform you that you'll be quite disappointed.  Really, this is going to be kind of boring for you.  What I need is… Read full post »

Alright, up off yer lazy asses, you godless liberals! Our War on Christmas has been an unmitigated disaster this year, and don’t even try denying it. Our secular progressive agenda is in tatters, and we’ve only got three more days left! We need to shape up, and fast!… Read full post »

We bought tickets in advance.  We joked about it all week.  But then, Sunday afternoon, we realized that buying tickets meant we actually had to go.  And that's how I found myself seeing New Moon with a theaterful of tween, teens, Twi-moms, and the like. 

Just so t… Read full post »

In 1999 I donned a cap and gown and made a grand exit out of that cesspool of adolescent enterprise known as high school. 

(If the back of my mother's camera hadn't been accidentally opened by my younger brother, I'd have a picture to post here of me accepting my… Read full post »

Hey!!  Glad you could make it!  Did you park around the block, like I said? Good.  You didn't tell Steve, right?  Great.  It's a surprise.  Now, you know the drill: we all find a good hiding spot, and when Steve gets here we all jump out and shout,

"Surprise!!… Read full post »

My body may be in the car, instinctively shifting and searching for a comfortable position, feigning the motions of someone who wants to sleep, but my mind is on fire. My mind is in the tent with Myra. In that tent Myra and I are forging a new future together, laughing… Read full post »

If I really wanted to be honest with myself, I’d admit that the main reason I agreed to come on this trip is because I thought there might be an outside chance that Myra and I might have sex.

There. That’s why I agreed to it. Surprise, surprise.… Read full post »

I’m stretched out in the back seat of the car idly playing with a Rubik’s Cube while Myra drives around looking for a non-chain restaurant where we can have lunch. So far we’ve passed over twenty different fast food joints and chain restaurants with nary a mom’n’pop in s… Read full post »

Myra is probably one of the smartest people I know. She has a fantastic range of knowledge spanning everything from classical music to quantum physics, and she can hold her own in any conversation she might find herself involved in. I remember a long time ago, well before we were dating,… Read full post »

You know that "I don't really want to smile for this picture but I will because you're taking a picture of me" look?  Sure you do.  Teenagers make that face a lot, especially if mom is behind the camera.  So do those people who don't like having their pictures taken because… Read full post »

One day when I was six years old I got on a school bus and attended my first day of kindergarten. When I was eight, I put on a blue uniform and attended my first day of cub scouts. When I was fifteen, I kissed a girl for the first time.… Read full post »

Myra’s slumped up against the steering wheel crying, and I don’t know what to do.  I put my hand on her shoulder to rub her back, and she unbuckles her seat belt and leans over to hug me.  I quickly try to unbuckle myself as well, but I fumble with the… Read full post »

I was there yesterday afternoon.  I was watching the drama unfold from inside Fenway, Grandstand section 7, row 7, seat 19, and with the Red Sox down 0-2 in the best of five series, I was ready to watch our boys of summer launch one of their famous comebacks. 

… Read full post »

We’ve been riding in silence for an hour and a half now, and I’ve been mentally cataloging all the various ways Myra has fucked me up. I know this is a dangerous game, strapped to our seats inches apart and hurling down the road at 70 mph, but I can’t help… Read full post »

Myra looks like a Myra. I won’t even bother describing her, because you can imagine yourself what a Myra looks like. The name evokes purple swirls, dark and strangely exotic. So does Myra.

Her full name is Myra Edith Madison. Her father wanted to name her after… Read full post »

Before Pete offered me that cigarette it had been almost two years since my last one, but it was like I had spent the last two years of my life dying for a smoke without even realizing it. Suddenly my fate is once again entangled with this little cardboard box of… Read full post »