It was December 21st 1974 and we were settling in around a campfire in the middle of the Superstition Mountains. Twenty-five of us had hiked into this forbidding environment for a class in field ecology sponsored by Arizona State University. Unfortunately, about half of the group had no experience in hiking at all, let alone […]
The True Reason for the Season Read More »
As fall begins and the daylight wanes, my chickens start molting and stop laying eggs. I haven’t eaten an egg in weeks, but nature is seasonal. Earlier in the year, the peaches ripened and we ate, cooked, and canned as many as we could. Later it was frozen beans and pickled cucumbers, but what all
Flocking to Freedom Read More »
A typical conversation with my mother these days goes something like this: She will say: “Where’s my purse? Do you have my purse?” And I will say: “It’s over on your dresser. See?” I point. “Is my checkbook in it?” “No, you don’t have a checkbook anymore.” “Well how do I pay bills? I have
from Conversations with My Mother Read More »
Being a Short Treatise on the Prevalence of Steampunk, or Neo-Victorian Retro-Futurism in Modern Society and Its Associated Philosophical, Social, and Artistic Implications Take three parts science fiction creativity, two parts mechanical ingenuity, and one part aesthetic sensibility. Stir delicately, strain through late 19th Century technology and fashion, and viola: Steampunk. Put simply, the Steampunk
Of Cogs and Culture: The Steampunk Renaissance Read More »
One thing all the founding fathers have in common is that they are dead. We are the ones who are alive, we are the ones who must make the laws and constitution work, juggling many variables the founders could never have foreseen. They created an America in which black people were deemed to be property
We have to move on. . . . Read More »
We had just finished waxing and buffing the floors at the old Simms Supers grocery store on Airport Road. It was ten thirty on a Friday night. We were teenage boys with cars, money in our pockets, and nowhere to go. We smoked cigarettes while debating whether to go to Pizza Hut to eat or
How We Create Killer Cops Read More »