Displaying all posts for personal history

In Case of Emergency

by September 7, 2008 » Add more comments.

I was alone in the house and on my cell phone, talking to my friend Leigh about a Web site she’s thinking of launching. Leigh speaks very fast, especially when she’s fired up about something, which she was. It can be hard to grip all the loose bits of Read more »

Froggy Fugue

by July 28, 2008 » Add more comments.

A toad lived under our patio for a few summers when I was a kid. I didn’t feed him or take care of his needs in any way, but I nevertheless thought of him as my pet. I named him Thumper. On random nights I’d be parked on the Read more »

Looking for Eddie Field

by July 8, 2008 » Add more comments.

Eddie Field had ears that stuck out like mug handles from either side of his head and a face that was a constellation of freckles. He wore his hair in a Boy’s Regular barber cut, cropped close to his head, which only served to give emphasis to both the Read more »

Dancing with Bears

by May 14, 2008 » Add more comments.

The other night, I stayed up too late reading Jonathan Franzen‘s The Discomfort Zone, a book I both devoured and savored. His writing is that delicious. I wanted to stuff myself silly as well as nibble each nuance, taking pleasure in each small flavor and the way they ingeniously Read more »

Korean Otters

by April 30, 2008 » Add more comments.

My friend Maryse called me the other day with a question, she said, about her daughter Laurie-Maude, who is in the same grade as my daughter Caroline. It was Korea Day at school, she said, and Laurie-Maude wanted to dress as an Otter. “How do Otter’s dress?” Maryse wanted Read more »

The Shadow Knows: Watching Superbad with My Son

by April 3, 2008 » Add more comments.

When I was a kid, in the 70s, I used to swipe my older brother’s Mad magazines. A lot of the humor was over my head, but that only added to the allure: This was a peep show into an unknown world, and I was lusting to grow up. Read more »

How I Invented Blogging

by February 13, 2008 » Add more comments.

The fabulous Toby Bloomberg solicited this from me more than a year ago for a site she was publishing, Blogger Stories. I asked her to let me reprint a modified version here to answer a question I’ve been getting a lot lately, “So how’d you get into blogging, Read more »

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