When my marriage fell apart in 2010 I quickly realized just how much of my social life was tied to my wife’s friends and family. I had friends of my own, of […]
Seattle Diary: if you have a community, do not take it for granted
Death, Iowa and being 30 minutes late to an orgy with Marcia Brady and Laurie Partridge: What’s the best time zone in America?
The United States spans six time zones. I have now lived in four of them (Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific), visited a fifth (Hawaiian-Aleutian) and flown over the sixth (Alaskan), so I […]
Life’s occasional symmetry: it was 20 years ago today
August 13, 1993: I woke for my first day in Colorado. I had moved here from North Carolina for grad school. I had a van of everything I owned and barely a […]
Scattered thoughts on the death of a fraternity brother: RIP, Jose
Earlier this week I received the distressing news that one of my fraternity brothers, Jose Fernandez, was dead. Jose – aka Joe – was in my pledge class, a small group that somehow […]
The Continuing Adventures of Lonelyman, #27: The Case of the Invisible Date
Lonelyman walks into Ernie’s Pizza and Italian in Northwest Denver. The hostess, a pleasant enough looking blonde woman, greets him and asks “how many?” Lonelyman has always dreamed of responding to this […]
ArtSunday: You can take the boy out of the working class, but can you take the working class out of the boy?
As I’ve noted before, I grew up working class in the South. My neighborhood, my school, my family and friends, it all oscillated between “redneck” and “white trash,” and yes, there’s a […]
Teaching underclass kids which fork to use
I recently came across a useful article over at Ragan’s PR Daily entitled “What to wear to work in the PR and marketing industry.” After reading through it, my first reaction was […]
ArtSunday: a poet says goodbye to poetry
I wrote my first poem when I was a senior at Ledford High School in Wallburg, NC. It was called “Octoberfaust,” and while it wasn’t a terribly good poem, it wasn’t bad […]
It's Jim's big day
In the summer of 1975 I got the class assignments for my upcoming freshman year at Ledford Senior High School in Wallburg, North Carolina. I didn’t know any of the teachers, so […]
An important life lesson, courtesy of Facebook and Amendment One
Facebook reminded me of an important lesson this morning. When I was young, I was an idiot. A well-intentioned idiot, to be sure. And in my defense, it must be said that […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 