Excerpt from an interview between Daniel Kellison and actor Michael Keaton, published here. Daniel: You worked on Mister Rogers back in 1975, right? What was he like? Michael: Yeah. He was funny, just deceptively funny. So authentic, but also so unusual. I worked on the crew at the local PBS station in Pittsburgh. I was … Continue reading “Fred just loved them. And they loved him back.”
While driving three of my high schoolers back to their campus after a writing conference, one of them leans forward from the back seat and announces to the others, “She’s driving BAREFOOT!” And his comrades crane their necks to look at my naked feet. Over their laughter, with feigned offense, I try to explain that … Continue reading Worlds in cars.
The conversations are always begun by me, and the answers are always a little impossible. Leaving our favorite coffee shop, driving through an old neighborhood of peeling-paint porches and crooked post boxes: “If we were to write our will today, who would we leave our house to?” In highway traffic: “What daily tradition would you … Continue reading Marriage of death > death of a marriage.
Once, in Texas, I fell in love with a one-eyed cat. There was a period of time when I went often to PetsMart, not for pet supplies but for the express purpose of ogling small creatures I couldn’t have. My beau at the time {a patient and kind enabler} went along, and when I cooed through … Continue reading What’s mine is the world’s.
Three days a week, I teach college English in a segregated high school. The white faces in classrooms and hallways belong to teachers and staff. Last fall, one of my students shared that a friend had asked him about the “tall, fancy white lady” she’d seen walking around. “I told her you’re my English professor,” he said to … Continue reading {Dalek voice}: INTEGRATE.
That rib-rattling sound you hear is me clanging a very heavy and serious-looking brass bell to commemorate my inaugural Emergency Book Recommendation. CLANG! Last week I innocently ordered the book Madness, Rack, and Honey for an upcoming cross-country flight. A nervous and woeful flyer, I rely heavily on literary treats that are engrossing enough to distract, … Continue reading An urgent book recommendation for yokels, nerds, and lovers of words.
Recently I’ve had a few blisteringly bad days. You know this pain, too, surely: they aren’t hair-related or job-related or anything fixed with a good cookie or cry; it’s Big Stuff. And that’s never fun, albeit part of this whole being alive thing. {Is it actually possible to reach the zen place I imagine Tina Fey inhabiting, … Continue reading Let the bad times roll…over all your dreams and wishes.
The Father’s Guns After her father died they found nine guns in the house. Two in his clothing drawers, one under the bed, one in the glove compartment of the car, etc. Her brother took their mother out onto the prairie with a revolver and taught her to shoot. The Bird For a while in … Continue reading “7 or 8 Things I Know About Her (A Stolen Biography)” by Michael Ondaatje
Let’s start with the storms. Six days in a row of leaden clouds and crackling sky. The first day I was on a neighborhood walk at dawn when a gentle sprinkle turned, within minutes, to a heaving downpour. I ran home, thrilled to be the only person outside, the only person seemingly awake. I stood on … Continue reading Come on, summer. These books and snacks aren’t going to gobble themselves.
If you are one of the faithful subscribers to this site {who may or may not actually still read, given the post paucity around here}, first of all: thank you! Come closer and I’ll give you a fist bump. Second: please forgive recent wonky changes to the site format and posts. I never know what shows … Continue reading I tipped my hat to you, and out tumbled a whole bunch of links.
RENARD ET OISEAU. 