Thanksgiving Poem
I wrote this several years ago when I was first experimenting with humor writing. I hope you enjoy it and your holiday week. It started innocent enough, The Thanksgiving when the turkey was tough. That Wednesday we got out of bed, Girded our loins for the cooking ahead, Opened the fridge, lo and behold! The […]
Telling Stories
“In my day, we had to walk miles in the snow to school…” Thus begins the age-old joke about parents’ childhood stories. For decades, kids have been rolling their eyes at all the “back in my day” lectures that ensue when they complain about something they think is hard. I don’t think I ever heard […]
The Funny Ones
One of the things that sparked my love for the past was 1960s sitcoms. For years, I unwound before bedtime by watching an episode with my family. We saw quite a few series, and The Dick Van Dyke Show was one of my favorites. Like a lot of kids, I was familiar with Dick Van Dyke […]
Spock’s Brain & the Logic of Laughter
It was the best of episodes, it was the worst of episodes. I’m referring, of course, to the famous, infamous, uncreatively titled episode of the original Star Trek series: Spock’s Brain. The basic premise of the episode is that an alien woman comes onto the Enterprise, removes Spock’s brain from his body, and returns to […]
Snoopy, Sparky, Vince & Me
Who doesn’t love the Peanuts gang? Sure, not everyone is a dyed-in-the-wool fan, but I’d be shocked if I met someone who had a strong dislike for Snoopy and Co. I’m firmly in the fan category. Actually, I’d say I’m more than that. Peanuts has touched my life in a lot of ways; I’d be […]
Nomenclature
April showers bring may flowers. Except in Texas where the weather does whatever it wants and all the maxims in the world won’t change it. Around where I live, flower season sometimes starts in February. Other years, the February scenery is pretty arctic. Either way, most of our beautiful native plants are blooming in March. […]
10 Favorite Picture Books
This blog might not exist if my mom hadn’t read to me every night from birth to teenagerhood. Maybe I would have still fallen in love with books and writing—they seem to be in my blood—but my mom deserves loads of credit. Raising me on books got me on the right path early. It’s been […]
How to Time Travel
Have you ever wished you could travel back in time? Not because there was some grave error you wanted to warn your past self to avoid—paradoxes that way lie—but because you are bored of the modern status quo. I actually don’t know what the modern status quo is, but I would imagine it gets boring. […]
Overheard in Hobby Lobby
I heard it in a Hobby Lobby, as all good stories start. I was on the sticker aisle, where glossy sheets line every inch on either side, dangling in their cellophane wrapping like sequins on an old Bob Mackie costume. I’ve spent a lot of time in the paper craft section of Hobby Lobby since […]