-
Jane Is Away
While Jane is off to Utah for a meeting of new students gathered for a degree in library science, I sit home here in Nevada trying to arrange my day, trying to fill in the spaces left by her leaving. Once again, I am alone for a while and wondering an old man’s thoughts, I suppose — the what ifs. You imagine them, I need not explain. At this juncture in my life having a partner is critical for me. I am feeling more dependent on the Other. I am not as strong as I thought I was. The realization…
-
I’ve Been Working On The Railroad
Wending her way through my collection of short stories on the Holocaust, Jane is formulating, in mind, what she intends to write in her introduction to the new book, hopefully published in Spring 2010. What I discovered when writing these stories is that as I crept toward an understanding that I could translate into writer’s words, that very understanding backed off and off, like receding waters. I just couldn’t grasp it and had to settle for approximations of what I thought I knew or had fathomed. Consequently I am dissatisfied with my efforts except for one or two stories. I associate…
-
The New Goebbels Of The Airwaves
Watching Glen Beck on Tuesday, 1 September, I heard this pastiche: I am a self-educated man…I put myself through school…I am a clown…My daughter disagreed with me on a historical point so I studied history… I read about the Progressive Movement in this country…Goebbels studied this movement to learn about propaganda… All of this is extracted from Beck’s mini-tirade. It is out of context. However, it is exactly what Beck did on Tuesday as he went after administrative czars who he feels are radicals. I imagine at night he drops his whole head into a bowl of potpourri. I imagine…
-
On Glen Beck
Chubby, pudgy, with brush haircut, always wearing poorly coordinated clothes (tasteless, like himself), small specks of dry skin on the right side of his lower lip, with elaborate and future jowls, he reminds me of ignorance dressed in knowledgeabilty, much more entertainer than commentator, stuffed like a turkey with opinions on all things, and poorly mentally groomed. On purpose I have not gone on to the web to find something about his biography, although I did come across that he is a recovered alcoholic and has no degree in journalism. How has this mediocrity risen so “high” is more of a…