Not Steve

Not Steve

A musician friend texted me after episode three of The Bear. We talked about art and growth. It is one thing to improve alone. How rare is it to be part of an ensemble where everyone elevates? He plays jazz saxophone and makes a million different decisions on when to...
Gone Swimming

Gone Swimming

Photo by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash On Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: It is August 1972 and Hunter S. Thompson wants to go for a swim. After eight months of covering the presidential campaign, crisscrossing the country, and faced with the prospect of young...
Word for Word

Word for Word

Toward the end of Tobias Wolff’s short story, “Bullet in the Brain,” Anders, the doomed book critic, recalls a time before everything reminded him of something else.  The story’s magic resides in Wolff naming what Anders does not recall. The list of seventeen items...