This is the writer’s desk, an overview of all posts.
There’s nothing I hate more than wasting time, except talking about it. Yet I knew there was a pointless fight to be had as soon as I got home from the office. So I took the highway, hoping to speed down the left lane, get to my wife quicker than […]
There once was a secretary and a school teacher who loved each other very much, but they seemed to always argue over the children. They were hers, he said. She should do more to take care of them. Yeah, but I’m more busy than you, and you live in my […]
An open letter to a fifteen year old. Dear you, Look me in the eyes. Are you happy? The answer is No. I’m going to do my best to transmit to you, through space and time, a message of hope and encouragement. Hope because we need to unleash […]
Circumscribe, v.1. restrict something within limits.2. [geometry] draw a figure round another, touching it at points but not cutting it.Origin: Latin circum “around” + scribere “to write” I. Just as the word describe comes from the Latin “to write down,” let us reconsider a similar word, largely ignored […]
“Make mistakes.” This was my boss’s first piece of advice to me. It felt strangely familiar, knowing we must lose a few tokens to win the big chips. When I told him I appreciate his wisdom, he shook his head. “It’s not my idea. I just follow the principle.” Now […]
Roberto Benigni does a fantastic job in his film about the years before and during WWII, La Vita E Bella, showing that humor can save a child’s life, or at least get you through tough times. Now, I won’t spoil it, if you haven’t seen it, because you must. But […]
Indian flute music plays in the background. Chest breathes heavy, then soft, lungs seeking incense that isn’t there. My tongue, tingling, takes the hot iron straw of the yerba mate and draws in the vibrant green liquid. I look out the window at a beautiful Bucharest dawn, today a paisley […]
“The joy of being alive and young suddenly took hold of her — and she spun around and kissed him, quite recklessly.” Before reading any book, I used to go to the last page and read its final line. At best, that would tell me if the whole book was […]
The guitar player strums or picks. The turtle does not scuttle or bumble. The sink drips, while the sirens . . . the sirens . . . holler? Hoot? Sound off?! What describes the sound a siren makes? It’s important to have the right vocabulary, especially when communicating important things […]
This can’t be love, because I feel so well,No sobs, no sorrows, no sighs.This can’t be love; I get no dizzy spells,My head is not in the skies. –Nat King Cole I often wondered why being in love made you want to stand on top of a mountain, shouting […]
Men gripped wrists two at a time. Then hugged. Together, we were. After ye ole UK my brother and I hopped a flight a few time zones eastward, with the friend we had always planned to meet at Heathrow, around the midnight hour. “I got us lounge entry,” […]
2018. Julia sat at a table alone with a birthday cake. Stuck to the creamy icing were six wax candles and a red letter A. She had spent the morning mixing chocolate and eggs for her son, to see him enjoy the three or four slices he was capable of […]
I was walking down one of those M.C. Escher stairs, in a museum, when I reached the end. From where I stood I could hear a young boy below, sobbing. The sound wasn’t echoing, as it should have been in such a large space. Fortunately, some of the railing was […]
No. No-o. Nope . . . No-o-o-o. No! No-u-u-u. NO! We shouldn’t complain. But here is a list of things that make me snarky, anyway. Some I am guilty of committing myself, while others are pure abstractions. At any rate, it’s what I’ve come up with and would like […]
I. Leroy was an exceptional man. Except, for one reason or another, no one wanted to date him. It led to much confusion, then suffering. Why? In answering this question, he began to consider his mother. The cause of his loneliness might be in her. Only, she was […]
Sound that breaks is noise, sound that moves is music. And from where he stood, Ilya Nikolayevich could almost hear the hum of a ship’s haul in the distance. It cut right across the line where ocean meets the sky, the horizon. He wished for the silence necessary to […]
The following is about the last two weeks, at times a Herculean effort on Ela’s part, while at times an Ovidian exile for me. Now that it’s over, I think Ela’s mother put it best, when she said, “You two will always remember getting married.” In her own witty way, […]
Dear Charlie Kaufman, After an hour of thinking about what to write, I’m ready. Why I am writing this letter is because you wrote two of my favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. You’re up there with Tarkovsky, Linklater, and Noe for me, […]
I feel like someone has to slap me across the back of my head to get me to write about this. My eyes shoot for the horizon, yet I look down at my feet. I can only see the here and now, can’t imagine some other later, just yet. […]
Feel free to fail. You are climbing over a stumbling block. That’s one. What are other, recent life lessons? Some silly things. I feel like I am holding a hot ginger tea and wearing pajamas as I explain things or muse, like some youtubers I saw recently. But on […]