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literary swag? BOOK PICTURES WORTH ONE THOUSAND WORDS? #literaryswag

    Selfies with a book? Had me at selfie.   Then book. Literary swag? Not so much, but it sounds like it could be big, like the cover of the New Yorker showing a reader with a book lit by their smart phone.   Nerd cartoon perfection. But what do readers really need?   […]

COMFORT ZONE AND BIG SNAKES? GET. OUT.

      If you’ve ever seen a snake wrangler in their comfort zone, they probably don’t look like this. There I was in a lovely Santa Monica apartment with nice people in Los Angeles.   They seemed like nice people, then I saw the snake in a cage.   “Do you like snakes?” someone […]

SPORT TALK RADIO ADS ON PORTLAND’S 620, 750, 1080

  Look at the face of sport talk reason. This man isn’t on sport talk radio because of his face. This face is on sport talk radio because of the audience. They want him.   They need him.   It doesn’t happen often, but if the airwaves line up in the right order while I […]

MICHAEL BECKER WALKS WITH PURPOSE

I like people who channel their problems constructively. They’re effective in making me feel like the whiner I’ve always taken pride in.   Michael Becker channels his problems constructively, and he’s a big boost. I found him in a search of cancer memoirs. We’ve exchanged pleasant emails. Have I told him I’m scouting for my […]

CANCER MEMOIR FROM SMART GUY WITH HPV CANCER, AND IT’S NOT ME

  Michael D. Becker wrote his cancer memoir titled ‘A Walk With Purpose.’   By all accounts he’s lived a life with purpose, so the walking with purpose stuff is expected. He walks with purpose, so do you.   So do I. We all walk with purpose. If not we’re just wandering around aimless, without […]

CANCER STORIES: FEEDING PUBLIC FEAR AND PRIVATE WOE

Things you’ll never know until you get cancer, any cancer:   You’ll either be an object of sympathy, or an antenna of sympathy. Or both.   “Keep up the fight,” or, “You’re a fighter,” or “You look like you’ve got this thing whipped.”   That’s what I heard after running Hood To Coast at 49 […]

PORTLAND BLOGS: TOP TEN ACCORDING TO RANKER.COM

    What’s it take to make the top ten list of Portland blogs. If you read ranker.com, the answer is be a newspaper since Willamette Week and The Portland Mercury top the the list at #1 and #2.   I’m not complaining that newspapers and blogs shouldn’t be compared but if it was my […]

AUTUMN LEAVES, AUTUMN DOGS, BEST TIME OF YEAR

    How often do dogs change my day? Every day.   And it’s not always my dog.   A walk on a trail, a lady with two frisky hounds, and it’s a lively moment.   Just two middle aged people on a hillside in the wilderness. Sharing the wonder of it all.   Autumn […]

John Grisham Novel Camino Island Includes Portland State And A Portland Story Idea

I was cruising Costco and in between food samples of tangy chicken, yogurt drinks, and a new pasta, rolled through the book aisle.   There’s something magic about stacks of books in a big box store. If you’ve got a book on the table you’re a real writer? You’ve arrived? Or is it something worse? […]

Japanese Exchange Student A Perfect Portland Fit

    What’s better than traveling to new places and meeting the locals? Being the locals and meeting travelers. A Japanese exchange student proved the rule this summer.   With kids out of high school and college you’d think a couple of empty nest boomers would enjoy themselves with the usual things baby boomers get […]