My Blog

In some past life I must have been late for a train.  Overburdened with luggage, breathless, I can see me running, fedora whisked from my head by the wind.  Only by some feat of strength, some last surge of energy, am I able to clamber aboard the moving coach, neither helped nor encouraged by the barrel-chested, walrus-whiskered conductor.  I lay breathless on the floor of the shifting

He tried to remember when he was a baby.  He could only visualize a Polaroid photograph of a party in his stepfather's basement.  There was his mother, all legs in a mini-skirt, his biological father, clueless, and, among an assortment of other mushroom-haired men, his future stepfather licking the edge of a hand-rolled cigarette. Lots of alcohol and joints were in play, and there he was, Paul,

Some thoughts about that: if not in an opera house then here under the girders of a new civilization in which the contemplative norm is that of a cheeseburger with a face full of sesames.  McCheese is one's neighbor and mayor, and his clown same-sex partner is a cook of sorts, and I guess a lot of people go there.  I have to admit I stopped years ago.  The fried fish sandwiches were about all I

I've admired Jane Goodall for many years, and tonight I had the pleasure of hearing her speak in my hometown: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Despite the fact that she's now 75 years old, the spirited primatologist, anthropologist and UN Messenger of Peace continues touring a harrowing 300 days a year. Goodall's none the worse for wear, though. Tonight, wrapped in a wool shawl, her silver hair neatly