"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
“Francie and Neeley went down into the cellar each evening and emptied the dumbwaiter shelves of the day’s accumulated trash. They owned this privilege because Francie’s mother was the janitress. They looted the shelves of paper, rags and deposit bottles. Paper wasn’t worth much. They got only a penny for ten pounds. Rags brought two […]
“My wife Norma had run off with Guy Dupree and I was waiting around for the credit card billings to come in so I could see where they had gone. I was biding my time. This was October. They had taken my car and my Texaco card and my American Express card. Dupree had also […]
Some time last week it got cold. No autumn lead-in, just straight to winter. Oh, maybe a little: over a ten-day period nighttime temperatures started dropping down into the 40s, but we were still hitting 90 during the day. Nothing I would call autumn, in any case. Then, wham, it’s freezing at night and everyone […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Arizona Banned Books Week had a special resonance here in Tucson, where we wear the scarlet letter of shame over one of the nation’s most infamous cases of book banning, a banning made all the worse by the racism that […]
Dear Jennaveieve, I’m having an affair with an older woman. Shes’ a lady of some sophistication, and makes a refreshing change from the teen agers I know (like Alektra, for example, or Chanel). The sex is fantastic and I think I’m in love. But ther’es one very serious complication and i’ts this; shes’ my Gran! […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Arizona Banned Chicano writers respond to the Tucson Unified School District book banning by publishing an anthology titled “Ban This!” What do you suppose the odds are it’ll be adopted by TUSD? The only thing better than having a locally […]
“In Paris, the evenings of September are sometimes warm, excessively gentle, and, in the magic particular to that city, irresistibly seductive. The autumn of the year 1938 began in just such weather and on the terraces of the best cafes, in the famous restaurants, at the dinner parties one wished to attend, the conversation was, […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. The 30th annual Banned Books Week (September 30-October 6) dominates the news this month. In the leadup to BBW, the American Library Association offers an interactive timeline covering 30 years of book banning attempts in the United States. Nice Banned […]