September 30, 2023
…pretty amazing in terms of what I don’t know about them. Joe Cady hadn’t found it necessary to tell me the story below until we had a conversation about cigars. When I was in high school, my friend Bobby-Bob-Bobby and I stole a couple of his father’s cigars. The day my family met Bobby-Bob-Bobby in…
September 29, 2023
I have tons and tons and tons of problems. If I sat down with you to tell you what’s wrong with me, we’d be there for days. And you’d end up like that poor cat in the videos, the one with its jaw hanging open. You’d marvel that I didn’t just put an end to…
September 28, 2023
I finally caught the bastard. He appears only at night, and only when the spoon is in a bowl that’s filled with water and set in precisely the right spot in the sink. I noticed him a few weeks ago. After I eat cereal, I fill the bowl with water and put it in the…
September 28, 2023
For at least forty-five minutes now, an obese woman across the street has been shouting, “GIMMIE WAYDA!” I went out my back door and crept around behind my car so I could see. There are actually three obese women standing there on the sidewalk. I don’t recognize any of them. They’re all in their forties…
September 27, 2023
That’s Tim’s elegant phrase for the state of passivity we entered when confronted with a situation we knew was wrong. Tim’s “rabbit trance” refers to the helpless fear of a rabbit. The other rabbit trance—tonic immobility—is a phenomenon well known to pet owners. You put the rabbit on its back, and it freezes. It’s an…
September 26, 2023
My friend Colonel Supotnitskiy sends me his take on the US and our place in the world at this particular moment in history: My book is a response to two American books: F. R. Sidell (editor), E. T. Takafuji (editor), D. R. Franz (editor). Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare. Washington, 1997. G. Zubay,…
September 26, 2023
Those of you who’ve read Ghosts and Ballyhoo know that my brother Paul and I narrowly avoided being killed by an Irish Republican Army nail bomb in Regent’s Park on July 20, 1982. As a result of that experience, I’ve read everything I can about terrorism. It turns out that the terrorists who attacked the…
September 26, 2023
I just finished my first radio interview, conducted by Bobbo Brown, KNTX AM14010, in Texas. Great guy, and like me, he loves film music. His favorite film—according to his bio—is The Godfather. One of mine too. And his favorite actor is Al Pacino. If you ever get a chance, see The Devil’s Advocate, Pacino’s best…
September 25, 2023
When I got to college, my punk roommate Joe Cady turned me on to ska. I wasn’t really aware of it. Of course, I knew about reggae because I was a Police fanatic. One of my favorite songs of all time is “Walking on the Moon.” The bass line and tone, the melody, Sting’s plaintive…