: lower black pain.

The 2024 Olympic mascots are Phrygian Caps that look like gnome hats…the ones you’d see if I suddenly said “Hey! Look up! Are those GNOMES across the street?” and you looked out your window and indeed saw mythical creatures only about a foot tall with little hats on. These would be the hats they were wearing. As mascots, these hats are fully self-ambulatory, with eyes and mouths and so forth. They...

We are halfway through summer. There is a heat advisory here today. The same sun we seek on the weekend seems disdainful toward us at work, either mocking us with a “come out and play” bright blue sky through our office windows, or broiling the world right at lunchtime when we try to grab a bite to eat. We expect heat in summer, but it’s been extremely hot in some places, the sort of heat that mak...

Last weekend, my daughter and I navigated four cancelled flights due to weather to visit my Mom in Kansas City, which was a very nice treat. I played handyman, dabbling in plumbing and carpentry and wiring and computer programming.  My daughter built a new affordable slow fashion aesthetic through carefully curated thrift store trips, and a few extremely fortunate finds. I was a bit of the third w...

If you attended American grade school you probably remember the blackboards, topped with long card stock banners depicting the alphabet in red letters as print and cursive, complete with little arrows explaining the best way to render each character. But just as ubiquitous was the bulletin board, usually filled with thematic collages depicting current holidays or collections of student work. The b...

You would open the front door to find a party, with TV cameras and confetti, and a man holding a gigantic check with your name on it (for a lot of money). This was the dream in the ‘70s, your entire life enhanced beyond imagining, not because of a lottery ticket but the value rich and somewhat educational gift that you were smart enough to give your family - MAGAZINES. Publisher’s Clearing House s...

My mother and her husband wanted us to see a fireworks display. We’d only been married maybe a year, and it was our first Independence Day together in Kansas City. My wife is from Northern California and admitted that 4th of July seemed bigger and louder in the midwest, what with all of the legal explosives and whatnot. There were more than 20 displays scheduled in the metro area - we went to the...

the storm rolls in, like a boulder, like a freight train, and then there is the briefest of silences, when the air is still and warm and heavy then a drop. then another. then rain, which is different from a storm, we think, because rain is just water falling from the sky, all friendly-like but then the drops somehow get bigger, each of them a separate splash of liquid fireworks on the rapidly dark...

By the time you read this, it will be summer. The solstice will have occurred, one of the two times each year the sun seems to stand still in the sky for a moment before continuing its orbital motion. Target™, in its trademark spirit of nearly intolerable seasonal anticipation, having been outfitted with inflatable beachballs since late March, will today begin shifting its display towards “Back to...

I am a responsible adult. I am an example to the child person that lives in my house, and exemplify as many mature traits as possible each day. I try to be kind, work hard, listen, learn: I attempt not to “whine” and to eat all my vegetables and don’t slouch (except on the couch, because that’s the way to sit on the couch). It’s a struggle, not leaning into being a kid myself. For instance, I real...

Every weekday afternoonat 3 o’clockthe day becomes so heavy though its balance is far past the tipping pointthe last few hourslooming aheadare somewhat overwhelming and I just get so tired. I make a cup of caffeine free teawhich perks me up becausethe water is just fartoo hot then back to work withwistful sighs forsimpler times whencomplex afternoonswere met with mats and window shades. I miss nap...

Last summer, when visiting my mother, we discovered that all the ice from her refrigerator seemed to be made of epsom salt. She had gotten used to this, living her life with the understanding that during hotter months of the year all sodas and juices would taste like they were mixed with a spicy turkey gravy, but we immediately discarded all her old ice trays and sent her several replacements. I n...

Last weekend our family learned how to silkscreen on fabric, a new skill initiated by a school project my daughter was finishing. It turned out the assignment did not actually require her to silkscreen or sew anything, just turn in a sketch of a fashion design, but she felt that the extra effort would really illustrate her artistic point. We didn’t know that until after she’d already “turned it in...

Tis the season for flat hats and thin colorful gowns, balloons and flowers and relatives and sold out lunch reservations at family restaurants.  Graduation. Streets filled with flocks of Jedi knights, all smiling somewhat nervously, making sure everybody’s together on the subway platform, a look on their faces of specific sweet relief topped with an overwhelming scoop of “what’s next?”. I am not a...

The seven deadly sins get all the attention. They are the high school “bad kids” at the loudest lunchroom table, all switchblades and cigarettes, roaming life’s hallways like they own the place. The seven heavenly virtues are off studying at the library: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope, and charity : also a very impressive group, who do a lot of volunteer work that will look...

I was never allowed to go boneless. I must’ve tried, once, but it wasn’t a viable option for negotiation. If you’re confused, boneless is that thing little kids do in the grocery store where they go incredibly limp, instantly doubling their body weight like a leaden water balloon supported only by a parents’ grip on their somehow-always-sticky hand. The boneless tactic is usually employed as a las...

It’s been a rough week. Back in the late 1980’s, when people could still smoke on planes, I took a flight home from college at Christmastime. Someone had told me how to get to the airport very early so that I could give my seat to someone in a bigger rush than me, thus earning myself a free flight coupon. I did so, and later that afternoon found myself one flight wealthier and holding a tentative...

I have indeed fretted over the possibility of computers somehow “taking over” while listening to NPR through my smart-speaker over broadband wireless, working on my laptop. As a child, computers represented “logic and efficiency” when I was all about imagination and emotion. I didn’t see how our paths would even cross unless I someday worked in one of those rooms full of tall white metal machines...

this week my daughter rose from bedand put a colander on her headsince we don’t have a family rule“you can’t wear kitchen tools to school”she did so, proudly. Metal hat.(Stop her? Why would we do that ?) it’s a pretty even bet thatsome of this could be geneticher voice, walk and choice of clothesseem to cause intrigue with thosewho don’t believe that it’s all real –then WE show up, and seal the de...

I began this experiment nearly two years ago, and as I explained in a reply to a recent comment, did not expect it to go on this long. Originally there were to be 12 columns, a number I enjoy for various reasons, but then this sort of became a habit, and I didn’t want to stop for any specific reason, so I kept going; setting new goals, none especially significant. I made it a year, which was fun,...

I adore the periodic table. To me it’s a larder containing everything that makes up everything. I also feel that way about the dictionary, the full spectrum of light, the audible wavelength range of musical notes, and the giant menus at diners in the Northeast where you can get both waffles and lobster. Einsteinium is the element you get when you combine 99 protons with 99 electrons, which is diff...

Yesterday my dentist and I ended up talking about Pokémon cards. He had started playing the Pokémon card game in ninth grade, and collected quite a stash of them, which he was still very proud of, though a few years ago he had given the bulk of it to two of his nephews.  “I found out they traded them for some snacks at school.” he told me. His voice didn’t quaver, but it wasn’t steady. He changed...

By the time Winter gets here, the voting will be over. You’ll have most of your holiday presents wrapped and the tree will definitely be up, if that’s a thing you do. You’ll be done with pumpkin spice and will have probably seen that Dune sequel since it came out for download in June. You’ll have bought warm new pajamas that aren’t fraying around the hem and no matter what you were worried about o...

“The end of winter” is not “Spring”. morning light still powder bluea chill at sunrise leafless branches lack of birdsong bed so warm most certainlythis iswhere we’re supposed to be but alas alarm (three snoozes); winter wins(sigh) comfort, loses day beginsso very slow, push push and push and barely godrawing superhuman power to make coffee, take a showergo from here to here again but that’s the p...

I have always considered the “African” part of “African-American” a bit of a mystery. Some Americans grow up surrounded by the language and culture of the first part of their hyphenated nationality, be it Irish or Chinese or Russian, and have been told stories from their grandparents about a faraway place that one would have to cross a body of water to visit which the entire family sometimes refer...

I have only one picture of my great grandmother. It is sepia toned, with blue dip pen notes on the back. She’s wearing old fashioned clothing. She is not smiling. It’s difficult to assume anything about her life except that she was staunch: her eyes look into the camera and beyond it with the power of one of Bruce Lee’s punches. I have maybe 80 photographs of my grandparents, only on the one side...