Stop Calling Me Surly
Morbid milestones and magnificent memories
In the span of four months this past summer, five former neighbors of the 16-home block where I grew up in Barbourmeade died. Bryan Sumner, 83, of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Fables of the Deconstruction
True
There’s a clearing out by the garden, just beyond the shed, that’s perfect for landing a sleigh, but I didn’t maintain it very well last year, so I spent the day of Christmas Eve
Summary of My Discontent
Monogamy in the lab
A study published Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience has uncovered a surprising new property of (the hormone) oxytocin, finding that when men in monogamous relationships got a sniff of th
Stop Calling Me Surly
Privacy in peril
If you’ve got a feeling that somebody’s watching you, the good news is that you’re not paranoid.
Fables of the Deconstruction
A lucky guy
My neighbor is banging on some piece of garbage in his backyard. He collects metal to sell for recycling.
Keeping Up with the Jones
Ten years of troublemaking with The Jones
"Think, and most about that which is most important: all the fools get lost because they do not think: they never see the half of things, and knowing neither their loss, nor their profit,
Summary of My Discontent
Looming fiscal metaphors
With the election behind us, many Americans have turned their attention to the “fiscal cliff,” a phrase widely used to describe the economic splatter that awaits us because, like Wile E
Raised Relief
Unburdened at least
Even if it was a psycho-spiritual shell game designed to reinforce the Church’s symbolic dominion over my individual salvation, going to confession did offer an opportunity to periodically re
Stop Calling Me Surly
A victory for empathy
Now that the game is over, let not the larger lessons be lost amid the shouting. Obama won partly because he showed the electorate more empathy than did Mitt Romney.
Fables of the Deconstruction
Wrong piano
“Fables of the Deconstruction” is taped in front of a live audience.
Scene one. The Old Watering Hole. Paul is standing at the bar talking to Lyle.
