Category Archives: Uncategorized

A series of posts on a Facebook group (Hot Springs Restaurant Reviews) during the past few days offer two very different perspectives on what constitutes acceptable levels of service. The original conversations began when a few people complained about experiences … Continue reading →

Clarvan Strang looked older than his forty years. Too many seasons in the sun had robbed his skin of youth. Knotted brown leather with wrinkled rivers of gathered hide covered every square inch of skin that shirts and pants and overalls hadn’t … Continue reading →

Last night, we attended our fourth (is that right?) Wines of the World dinner at Coronado Center. The theme country for the night was Portugal. After beginning with a far-too-sweet-for-my-taste port, the wines ramped up in interest and quality. Two … Continue reading →

It’s almost midnight. I should be in bed, but I’m not. Instead, I’m reflecting on the day just ending, stunned that the frenetic pace led to something so smooth. The morning started with coffee with friends who happen to be … Continue reading →

A rancid, acidic stew is coursing through our nation’s veins, sickening the heart and gut of the country that once offered the world promise and served as an imperfect, but hopeful, model for humanity. Today, that ugly slurry—a foul mixture of … Continue reading →

I just watched a YouTube video in which Emmanuel Macron, the newly-elected President of France, invited U.S. climate scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to come to France to pursue their work on climate change. In my opinion, the invitation was a … Continue reading →

We had a house guest not long ago. When one has a house guest, one tidies up. One washes the guest towels, put fresh sheets on the bed, sweeps, mops, dusts, and otherwise behaves in ways foreign to one’s daily … Continue reading →

I took this photo in an interesting shop in downtown Hot Springs recently. 

Until you’ve painted, you cannot legitimately express opinions on the skills of the person holding the brush. I learned that lesson through embarrassing experience. I tried to paint something I thought would be “easy.” I selected an abstract theme, thinking … Continue reading →

Tomorrow (that is, Thursday), I’ll participate in a critique circle, part of the Hot Springs Arts in the Park week-long celebration of arts of all forms that flourish in this wonderful enclave. Tomorrow’s critique circle, led by the current host of … Continue reading →

I have an idea for a card-based game. It would engender interaction between people at events at which personal, one-on-one engagement would, typically, be a little awkward.  I have in mind creating a deck of cards which would ask questions about … Continue reading →

Today, April 25, is ANZAC Day (the acronym stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), one of the most meaningful and important national occasions for many Australians and New Zealanders. It marks the one hundredth anniversary of the first major … Continue reading →

Rejection is a gift, because it erases unearned pride and self-importance. Rejection is a gift because it offers opportunities to repair things that are broken, things that led to the very rejection that revealed the brokenness. Rejection is a gift … Continue reading →

Despite my string of one-off posts that do nothing but wash my reputation in hideousness, I am back, just shy of five o’clock in the morning, ready to do battle with good taste again. I awoke in a worse mood … Continue reading →

Lima Struck was sixteen years old when her parents died in a fire she set. She claimed she did not aim to kill them, only to force them to find a new home more suited to her tastes. The fact that … Continue reading →

I listened. All I heard was noise. Noise emanating from idiots. What else could I hear? It was Donald Trump and his minions, drunk with power and anesthetized with stupidity. That’s unkind, isn’t it? That shoves people into little boxes … Continue reading →

I spent enough time out on the deck tonight, looking up at the stars, to know the universe in which we live is beyond comprehension. Humankind invented gods in an attempt to understand the complexity and vastness of this world … Continue reading →

First, my disclaimer: 1) I am worse than an amateur photographer—my skills are an affront to photography; 2) I was inside the house, looking out; and 3) the windows are both dirty and coated in fresh pollen, as is every … Continue reading →

Slowly, quietly, as gradually as spring spins through summer and fall into winter, I have grown moderately tolerant of religious belief. To a point. I have become willing to countenance ideas that I find odd and even absurd; not as truth, … Continue reading →

We spent the better part of today looking at dining tables, a repeat of yesterday’s endeavors. We’ve found a few table/chair combinations we like, but we’re not quite ready to bite the bullet. Though the pursuit of a new dining … Continue reading →

I tried to maintain my composure, but it was a losing battle. Why is it, so very long after the fact, I am unable to maintain the stiff upper lip we hear so much about? As much as I know … Continue reading →

I have promised myself for untold months that I would sort through and select for self-publication the dozens and dozens of short stories, vignettes, poems, daily utterances, and assorted other output of my typing fingers. To date, my promises have … Continue reading →

Good actors can display emotions at will, as if they simply flip a switch. Their emotional demonstrations appear effortless, but they are not. The perfect combination of subtle changes in the mouth, eyes, cheeks, forehead, and manner of speaking occur only … Continue reading →

A new nation, conceived in liberty, and fiercely and unwaveringly dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal. That’s what I’m after. Among the many questions such an objective summons are these: 1) would this new nation exist … Continue reading →

I’m taking an earlier-than-halftime- break from watching an FX film that, so far, exceeds my expectations. I started watching it because I relate to its title: “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore.” Yes, I realize that says … Continue reading →