When The Man Goes To Ground
So my good friend Heather tells me she finished the copy of the new Johnny Cash biography by Robert Hilbun I sent her for Christmas and was somewhat taken aback. She was thinking of writing about it,...
View ArticleCaptain America: The Winter Soldier raises the bar
We have tickets to go see this tomorrow with friends, but I couldn’t wait.Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the movie I wanted to see the first time. The first Cap movie, as well the first Thor...
View ArticleHow Idaho does Earth Day:
With thousands of tiny non-biodegradable foam balls given away to schoolchildren paid for with government money. Because irony about our misuse of the environment and tax dollars takes balls!
View ArticleSensei, Sunset
[The pic above is from one of The Boy’s first private lessons.]It’s been almost two years since The Boy started taking private Taekwondo lessons.When we began, there was this instructor at his school...
View ArticleDad
The other day at an event at his school, The Boy called out to me, “Daddy—I mean, Dad...!”I am officially being transitioned from Daddy to Dad. It has been a sweet ride, as long as it has lasted. I...
View ArticleFun at the walk-in clinic
So the doctor I saw this morning wasn’t my usual person. Today’s doctor was all about drilling the rules and regulations of the place into my head. This is the exact same thing I’ve gone in for a...
View ArticleKaren Thomason was here
My friend Karen died while I was on vacation a couple days ago. She had been in what they call a persistent vegetative state for the last 12 years, stemming from a rapid succession of catastrophic...
View ArticleA nosebleed seat to the Apocalypse?
We all really need to start getting along.Since moving to Idaho, I’ve had to put my politics on the back burner. Too many consequences to shooting off my mouth. Fuck it. Too many consequences, balanced...
View ArticleThe Great Eights
Our little man turns nine today.He is very cool and just a little bit weird and I like him a lot. I would hang out with him even if I didn’t have to. Which, now that Minecraft exists, I technically...
View ArticleI Pity The Fool
I’d wager Bill Maher is going to have a fatwa on his ass by this time tomorrow, after the new-season debut of his political talk show tonight on HBO. He’s already in trouble with Ben Affleck—not to...
View ArticleMy Summer Of Love
Wow, what an amazing summer it’s been.This is the first year of Luke’s life that Leslie has had a 9-5 desk job all summer, and it has been a whole new level of parenting experience. I mean that in a...
View ArticleThe five stages of Trump
It’s impossible to discuss this election cycle—by which of course I mean the unexpected viability of Donald Trump’s shockingly repugnant candidacy—and the Republican primary voters who are hurtling...
View ArticleAnother long-winded political treatise, election 2016 edition
Greetings, history students of the future.It’s the Sunday before election 2016 and I wanted to put a few thoughts down for posterity. Disclaimer: I was encouraged in this endeavor by my wife, which...
View ArticleLeonard Cohen—A remembrance
The first time I heard the name Leonard Cohen—known these days mainly as the composer of “Hallelujah,” one of most-covered songs of the modern era—was back in the early 1990s. A fellow who worked...
View ArticleFast-forwarding through the Golden Globes, 2017 edition
Little Jimmy O’Fallon hits the stage, his teleprompter isn’t loaded and he begins to panic. The actual comics in the room try to avoid eye contact with the roving cameras as O’Fallon drowns in flop...
View ArticleAnd God said, “Whatever you say, dear”
My Mom, Joan Marie Brooks, was born in the Midwest in 1926.Google reports: In September of that year—on the 11th as it happens—a hurricane formed outside Miami which hit land one week later, eventually...
View ArticleHELP WANTED: Country (some assembly required), seeks meteor expert
It’s getting tough to avoid the conclusion that America is teetering on the End Times of one thing and tipping over into the Beginning of something else. We’re in a new age of dinosaurs and our meteor...
View ArticleWhere have all the fast-food workers gone?
WARNING: This column discusses the horror of child sexual abuse. If you don’t want to read about any of that, I don’t blame you and please don’t! With my blessing, as well as my best wishes...
View ArticleSmall-town America’s dirty little ‘Peculiar Institution’
DATELINE: ANYTOWN, RR4, box 32—I wrote probably my least-favorite column ever last week, exposing the endemic culture of childhood sexual abuse in my typical Red rural state. It was only meant to be a...
View ArticleHey Suzy Q
Like you, your timing is a thing of wonderment and beauty. 😊 Tell me what’s going on in your life! Start with what you do for a living. I’m currently between gigs. You find me in a state of...
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