Tag Archive

First Person Shooter – Three Truths

The Red Suit

I had the benefit of hearing this story twice. Ali told it to me once, and then I got to hear him tell it to an unknown couple that we invited to sit at our table in some bar a few years later. I realized with the second telling that Ali had refined this… full story HERE »

First Person Shooter – The Ali Files

One day Ali and I were sitting around shootin’ the shit, telling stories and drinking beer. The topic drifted to the natural beauty of the hills and mountains around Knoxville. Ali said he loved getting out into the mountains — like he had done one day with me and Herbie when we’d gone hiking in the… full story HERE »

Terrible But True – Reckless Abandon

The barred doors and shuttered windows, the knotted groups of soldiers twitching their fingers against the triggers of their Kalishnakovs, the sand-bagged bunkers sheltering pairs or trios of camouflaged kids all huddled around a massive belt-fed machine gun, the complete lack of civilians: Perhaps, had we not been so utterly stoned, we would have noticed these… full story HERE »

From The Recesses – Zombies And The Zeitgeist

In late May of this year, I sat on the back deck of my family home in Upstate New York with my brothers and some old friends. Everyone was there for a backyard barbeque, something we only get to do once or twice a year anymore. Brother Ed’s toddlers, the twins, were playing with trucks, being… full story HERE »

From The Recesses – A Cry of Barhounds

At Flannery’s Bar on 14th and 7th in Manhattan there were three sacred books. This was, mind you, before the ubiquity of handheld access to the internet, truly a primitive age. One was The Complete and Definitive Record of Major League Baseball. One was Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia: Career Profiles of More than 2000 Actors and Filmmakers, Past and… full story HERE »

Traveler’s Journal – Freedom-Fighting Brothers at The International Museum of Toilets

It should come as no surprise that I visited the International Museum of Toilets primarily as a joke. While there was part of me that thought the visit might be instructive in a “development of civilizations” kind of way, mostly I just thought it would be hilarious.

I found reference to the museum in the New Delhi… full story HERE »

From The Recesses – Ralph Lewis and His Foul Mouthed Philosophy

In early 2000, I found myself falling in love with a rare and beautiful woman. We’d known one another for years, but one night, under the influence of Guinness Stout and Fergal the Barman, we talked and drank and laughed and for the first time ended up in a kiss. Truth be told, it was a… full story HERE »

Featured Story – Eid On The Ganges

In the past few decades, I’ve been inside a church maybe two dozen times, mostly for weddings and funerals, a few times to marvel at the soaring nave or the intricately carved chancel of a cathedral, and once or twice just to sit in silence and pray. I was brought up in a tradition that said… full story HERE »

From The Recesses – The Death Of The Book

The Birth Of the Book – A Holy Rant

For almost 2000 years, on our half of the planet, when you said you were reading The Book, everybody knew which one you meant. And, it’s one Hell of a Book if ever there was, filled with subtext below subtext below subtext. Just take the first words… full story HERE »

Terrible but True – Never Never Land

With its cobbled streets, leafy courtyards, and views of three sexy-ass volcanoes — one of which sporadically erupts in an endearingly sinister way — Antigua wields a strange power over the foreigners who live there. A saucy temptress indeed, this beautiful city seduces one wide-eyed wanderer too smart to grow up after another.

For those who think… full story HERE »