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Picture It: Lexington Ky, 1982
My fifth novel, The Case of the Missing Drag Queen, is set in Lexington, Kentucky and takes place in the fall of 1982. It’s my first story set in the city where I grew up, came out, and spent my salad days. Writing it has been a walk down memory lane. I chose the year…
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Online Shopping: Easy, Convenient & Cheap
The internet has changed the way we shop. Big retailers are closing stores at an unprecedented rate. Shopping malls look like ghost towns. It’s hard to compete with virtual everything. Shopping is not my cup of tea. In fact, thanks to poor or non-existent service, long checkout lines, and people getting in my damn way,…
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A History of Porn
In the eighth grade I saw my first pornography. A neighbor a year or two older than me was showing off his dirty magazine collection. I’d seen lots of Playboys and a Penthouse or two, but nothing as graphic as the photos in his collection. Where my neighbor found his dirty magazines is a mystery.…
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My Diabetic Doggy, Part Three
In early May, we found out my little chihuahua, Toodles, was diabetic. We have to check her sugar twice a day (6:30 am and pm) and, if it’s less than 200, give her an insulin injection. Most of the time, her sugar is well over 200 so she gets an injection. I can’t see well enough…
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This Bathroom Business
The push for transgender rights is much in the news these days. The guidance issued to schools by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education provoked a flurry of fear-mongering commentary from opposition groups. You’d think the world was coming to an end. Science has established that gender, sexual preference, and gender identity are three…
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Pleading Ignorance
Recent events got me to pondering the difference between ignorance and stupidity. Neither is in short supply. The good news is that one is fixable. Despite a lack of formal training, I consider myself to be an expert on ignorance and stupidity. Life has taught me all I need to know. Decades of observations and more than fifty…
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The Curse of Complexity
Nothing is simple any longer. Nearly everything is infinitely more complicated than was the case twenty or thirty years ago. Hardly a day goes by without an encounter with something complex enough to make my head explode. Take my medical flexible spending account — please. Tax-free dollars are transferred with each paycheck to an account I access with…
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Out with the Old
‘Tis the season to reflect on 2015. I’ve had better years, but to be fair, I’ve also had worse. To put a rather challenging year in perspective, my thoughts turn to where I’ve been, where I am right now, and where I want to go. As Dr. Phil says, “How’s that (the way you live your life) working for…
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Ice Cream Memories
I’m lucky. A hand-cranked freezer is the star of my first ice cream memory. I’d eaten the store-bought version before, but making our own ice cream was a special occasion. Vanilla was the norm, augmented sometimes with strawberries, peaches, or bananas. Licking the paddles was the reward for helping with the cranking. Sometimes — not…