April 21, 2017

Trump World

You buy a ticket, you board the bus, and then you discover that you're on the wrong one. You thought you were going north, but you're going south. This bus is headed for Trump World. You'd like to get off, but it's too late, and so you sit back and try and relax, but it's like reading a Stephen King story you know things are going to get worse.

You arrive in Trump World, and it doesn't take long--I mean a day or two--and you see lies lining up to be told while contradictions are being served on cornflakes at the White House cafeteria, and conspiracy theories are flowing from the drinking fountains.

Dunning and Kruger are awarding certificates of merit to the White House staff. Raffles award cabinet positions to the highest bidder. And there are the Russians--they're everywhere--chatting it up with the raffle winners and purchasing condos from the president's family.

Now you're back on a bus on our southern border, with Donald driving and honking the horn. Eric and Don Jr. are there shooting coyotes and other critters out the window. While Kelly Anne and Bannon are arguing in the back, Jared and Ivanka are back at the White House watching the store. And Donald, thinking he's a rock star, starts singing and the wheels on the bus go round and round, and the others join in, and the wheels go round and round followed by a chorus of lock her up lock her up. They're laughing, and they're singing "Ninety-nine bottles of beers on our wall. Ninety-nine bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, and Mexico pays for it, pays for it all!"

Donald takes out his phone. He's tweeting again, and soon his pants are on fire, and the bus is filling with smoke. Flames are growing bigly. Donald pulls to the side of the road jumps out and panics for a moment when he realizes the only water to put out the fire is in the Rio Grande. On the other side of our wall. He jumps out and rolls around in the dirt till the flames die down, and again back on the bus driving, and he's still tweeting--"just foiled a terrorist plot to destroy your president and America." And now we're on a roundabout, and all the exits are off cliffs.

The wheels go round and round, and Mexico pays.

January 20, 2017

First Book

I've just published my first book on Amazon. It's a collection of seventy-two stories written over the past fifteen years. I use the term "stories" as a catchall for what includes creative non-fiction, flash fiction, prose poetry, and memoir. All of the pieces are short, usually just a few hundred words. I've tried to capture the interesting bits and pieces of life as I see it. I find it's all interesting, if you pay attention.

My book, "Mostly Anecdotal: Stories" is now available on Amazon both as an e-book ($3.99)and paperback ($6.95). It's also available for free for those enrolled in kindle unlimited. If you purchase a paperback copy you can also purchase the kindle edition for $0.99 through Kindle's Matchbook program.



December 22, 2016

End of the World

December 17, 2016

Currently Reading

How a Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.

Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis's own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms.

December 11, 2016

Climate Change

December 10, 2016

Current Reading

I'm currently reading Mary Oliver's collection of essays, Upstream. I'm almost finished and I'm getting that please don't let this end feeling. I particularly enjoyed her essay bird where she relates the story of finding an injured Black-backed Gull and taking it home Christmas morning. My bird loving friends will love this story. If you love nature there are few writers who are better at capturning what we love about our world.

December 9, 2016

Crushed

Mr. Trump is gone, killed in a blink, crushed by his ego at his own inauguration. It happened the moment he placed his hand on the Bible. No one else was injured, though Chief Justice Roberts gown was ruffled. The Justice reported hearing a loud swoosh and when it passed there was nothing but a spot of orange matter custard on the stage in front of him. The crowd was stunned but soon started chanting: clean him up, clean him up.

I didn't want to think about it and so retired to a nearby coffee shop where a cup of my favorite french roast calmed my mind. It was then I noticed the cup I was drinking from had a picture of the almost president and the slogan drain the swamp beneath. I took a picture of the cup, and tweeted: today the @realDonaldTrump disappeared, and the swamp began to drain.

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