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HOW COLLEGE FOOTBALL MATTERS

Football matters to everyone who has played the game in the backyard, in the street, and on the football field. It matters because we all like to think we were as good as the guys playing today; our teams were better than their record. No matter the level of play, we were so much better […]

LISTENING PRACTICE: START SOONER THAN LATER

Listening practice with Ernest Hemingway: “We learn to talk by two, we learn to listen by sixty.” That he was dead at sixty-one says something about his listening skills? Nooooooo.

HARD RAIN FALLING, GUTTERS OVERFLOWING, NOW WHAT?

I’ve got a hard rain falling in drops you can see. Not the usual drizzle, not a sheet of water, but individual drops spaced and timed to perfection. It’s cold out, the kind of day that makes you think of other places you’ve heard about, seen on advertisements, the kind of cold and wet people […]

ON REMEMBERING ANNIVERSARIES

My wife is great for remembering anniversaries and birthdays. It’s an encyclopedic memory of family, friends, and pretty much anyone who has ever been born. At least that’s what it feels like in comparison to her husband, who is more selective. I remember plenty, I’m not saying I don’t, but ask me the birthday of […]

LIVING HERE? LIVING THERE? KEEP IT UP

Whether living here, or wherever, it’s getting easier to see a different image, where things look tight. How tight? Reddit has an idea of how tight. But I’m thinking tighter with more people in smaller spaces. I’ll start at the beginning, a one room ‘studio’ on NW Lovejoy, Portland, Oregon at the top of a […]

EVERYBODY COMES FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE? GET OVER IT

Q: Where are you from? A: All over the place. Q: Where did you grow up? A: It’s a long list.

NEW YEARS DAY WITH OREGON DUCKS

My thanks go to the Oregon Ducks on New Years Day. Because of this college football team I watched three games in a row. With my wife. First, we talked:

2025 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR, SO FAR

2025 highlights have come every day, with each new one besting the last. And, like last year, 2024, it’s come to this. The End. Also like last year, and the years before, tomorrow is a: New Beginning. Let’s say it together. New. Beginning.

GET TO THE WRITING POINT

People who feel like their head might explode in the middle of the night because their brain won’t calm down need to get to the writing point. No writer has ever felt the internal pressure in their mind because they’ve already gone over things. Gone over, and over, and over, and over. Let me rewrite […]

BE DIFFERENT, BUT HOW DIFFERENT

Be different, be better, be something. Just not the old coot where every day is the ol’ same ol’. It’s not the same, day after day, and neither are you no matter how you try. Why not be stable and dependable? That’s different enough.