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The Museum of Funeral Customs is on the edge of Oak Ridge Cemetery, a five-minute walk from the tomb. Supposedly the fellow who swoops over to greet me is the museum director, but he speaks in the hushed low voice of a funeral director. He warns me about “the sensitive nature of our exhibits.” Please. […]
Today’s domestic project was to flush out the water heater. Until a year ago I didn’t know this was something I was supposed to do, but our plumber set us straight and now it’s on the annual to-do list. Why is it important? Because sediment from hard water builds up inside, makes it inefficient, and […]
Any time someone tries to keep someone else from reading a book, the intent is to ban … even if the ban applies only to one sixth-grade classroom in some rural town.
“Nothing is more important mostly than a funeral,” Violet said as they ate a noon lunch of soup and sandwiches. “The whole point of a person’s life—or the lack of a point if it’s more or less rounded—can’t help popping out at a funeral.” She wedged the last triangular bite of wheat bread, cucumber, mayonnaise, […]
Donna’s old Dell died this week, and last night we ordered a new MacBook Pro to replace it. Slowly but surely, Macs are edging out PCs around these parts. Four or even three years ago, if someone had told me we’d ever drink Steve Jobs’ Koolaid, I’d have scoffed. But then I got an iPad, […]
“I’m a psychiatrist, Miss Taylor. Normally, when people hit things with their car, there are skidmarks on the pavement. A brick wall is a pretty good reason to use the brakes, turn the wheel. You didn’t do that.” — Jude Law as Dr. Jonathan Banks in Side Effects Side Effects (2013, USA) A subtle mystery […]
I went outside and smoked a cigarette, looking this way and that, the very picture of an American idler in Mexico, right down to the grass-green golfing trousers. They had looked all right on the old man from Dallas but they made me feel like a clown. They were hot and sticky, too, made of […]
“Friends on the outside were always asking why he stayed in […] he had tried to find an answer sitting alone at dinner in the club filled with administrative majors and mothers talking about their children, but he never could. In his mind he carried Saturdays of flying, with the autumnal roar of crowds on […]