I don’t want to write this piece. And you might be asking: “Why not write something else?” Because I have to write this piece. I’m in such a white-hot rage that I can’t think of anything else to do. So there will be frayed edges and loose ends and subjects I pick up and drop….
Month: May 2022
Real Questions (Sunday Summary)
This has been a difficult week. There’s been so much for us to be sad about, to be angry about, to be frustrated by. We are so familiar with this cycle. An act of violence. A flood of emotions like shock, horror, outrage and grief. A series of platitudes and mock-action. Then a return to…
Mysteries (Caturday Questions)
It was just one of those mysteries. A classic whodunit. Human-Mom emerged from the bedroom to find what appeared to be a cat-turd on the floor. She rounded up the usual suspects. But who could have been responsible? Well, it depends what kind of mystery you’re writing. Big Cat, Little Cat We were the Mysteries…
“The Good Parts”: The Real Sex Ed
There has been a lot of discussion of limiting children’s access to sex ed. But that may not be possible. Sex ed is all around us. The most you can limit is your engagement with their education. And why would you want to limit that? My First Sex Ed Classroom: A Slumber Party In first…
Classroom Supplies Wish List
It’s the last week of school, and I’m already thinking about what to put on my classroom supplies list for next year. The simplest things that come to mind include pencils, notebooks, paper, yadda, yadda, yadda. All the normal stuff for a second grade class. But if I could really ask for anything, what would…
“Where do you Get your Ideas?”
If you listen to interviews of authors, one of the questions you’ll hear most often is: “Where do you get your ideas?” I hear a plaintive note in this question. It is asked so often. Sometimes with reference to a specific work or series (like with George R. R. Martin and A Song of Ice…
It Never Rains but Pours (Sunday Summary)
Summer is peeking around the corner. Big Cat and Little Cat (and Middle Cat, too) have shifted their sleeping spots to their preferred summertime spots. Days have gotten longer, and, in Florida, the afternoon seasonal rains will begin very soon. Adam reliably informs me that the seasonal rains have already started in New York. And…
Twist Endings (Caturday Questions)
Little Cat has been seeing versions of this joke all over the internet these days. And why not? It’s a classic. It’s the basis for a lot of Emo Phillips’s material. And of course, twist endings are having their day in the sun in Marvel movies, horror and thriller films… And was it only a…
Solitude and Music: The Silence Between the Notes
“Couldn’t put my phone downScrolling patientlyIt’s all the same to meJust faces on a screen, yeah I’m trying to realizeIt’s alright to not be fine on your own” (comethru – Jeremy Zucker) Alone | Together Recently, my musician friend Jabin Law starts a new music project “Alone Together”. Alone Together is a follow-up project of…
“Save the Cat”: Anti-Abortion Virtue Signalers
How do fringe interests like abortion and homophobia take center stage at a time when we have bigger issues? (N. B. We always have bigger issues. So we might as well ask how anti-choice and anti-queer people ever take center-stage.) The answer actually has something to do with how to be a good writer. It…