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FART AROUND LIKE KURT VONNEGUT, IT’S GOOD FOR YOU

August 4, 2023 by

Fart around like you mean it: Kurt Vonnegut tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope: “Oh, she says, well, you’re not a poor man. “You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?“ And so I pretend not to hear her.

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TENDER BAR, A PLACE EVERYONE NEEDS

October 27, 2022 by

The Tender Bar is a book, a memoir, and a movie. A book and a movie, for the deuce. But it’s more than a book or a movie, it’s a destination I stopped in for a drink yesterday, but it was the wrong bar.

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NURTURING YEARS, OR CHECKING OUT

August 23, 2022 by

Nurturing years change over time. From the duties of planting and raising nasturtiums in third grade, to raising kids in your thirties, the stakes rise. Then everyone grows up and no longer need nurturing? No, that’s not how it works.

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FATHER KNOWS, STILL DOESN’T CARE

December 7, 2021 by

Father knows everything, just ask him. He knows the big secrets and wants you to know he knows. There isn’t much he doesn’t know, but the lines blur between what he knows and doesn’t know. Why? Because he’s a bad father. And he’s got bad father friends. What makes a bad father?

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RELAYED STRESS: BAD NEWS TRAVELS LIKE WILDFIRE

October 10, 2021 by

Relayed stress comes from hearing and repeating bad news, and it doesn’t get enough attention. Finding bad news is easy. It’s as easy as opening a magazine, a newspaper; as easy as looking at a phone screen, a laptop, or a tablet. Bad news is popular in print, on air, everywhere. “Do you remember where […]

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MEATHEAD MIRANDA RIGHTS FOR MORE CLARITY

September 28, 2021 by

Know your rights, your Meathead Miranda rights, before offering an opinion. It may save you problems in the long run. “But I’m not a meathead,” you say? That’s good to know, but like so many things, we’re always the last to know. This might help more than you’d expect: Meathead Miranda rights:

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DYSFUNCTIONAL PARENTS TEACH THEIR KIDS BY EXAMPLE

July 20, 2021 by

Dysfunctional parents come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Kids raised in a dysfunctional environment come out of it with choices to make. No one chooses to be a dysfunctional parent, but if that’s all you know, what else is there to do? Plenty. Starting with, “What is dysfunctional supposed to mean, smarty pants? You […]

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FATHER FIGURE OF THE FUTURE: VOTE BIDEN

November 2, 2020 by

The last time I talked to my step-dad, he was a father figure. He said he didn’t ask us boys to call him Dad. I called him Dad then. He was in an acute recovery facility after surgery during covid and smoke, I was outside his window talking through a screen. “You were a good […]

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