Mom saved all my letters. I found them in a box marked “Tom’s letters,” sensibly enough. Mom didn’t always write such precise descriptions on her many, many, many boxes. Most are unmarked, or they say, “Memorabilia,” or “Photos.” Even the boxes marked “Wictor photos,” for example, have lots of non-Wictor images in them. Tonight, in…
Why I love the moon
December 11, 2013
Ever since childhood the moon has fascinated me. The full moon was amazing; I saw a rabbit playing a conga. The Japanese say the rabbit is pounding rice to make mochi. I’ve always loved crescent-moon faces, such as in this photo. It’s a perfect illustration of my feelings about the moon, because along with my…
Things I hate in movies
December 10, 2013
I’m a film fanatic. Medication and movies helped me defeat lifelong insomnia. Every night I fall asleep watching a DVD. My TV is now strictly a screen for watching films. I haven’t seen a TV show in three years. For some reason people tell me I need to start streaming movies and store them on…
When headlines do not match stories
December 9, 2013
A reader sent me the link to this story: “Viewing News of Trauma Worse Than Experiencing It.” The problem is that the story doesn’t say that. After the Boston marathon bombings, people who spent six hours a day scouring media for updates were more traumatized than those who were actually there, a US study suggested…
The perfect end to 2013
December 9, 2013
Most people would tell me to not link to this, but Tila Tequila has come out as a Nazi sympathizer and supporter of Hitler. It’s the perfect end to 2013. What a ridiculous, awful, exhausting, painful, depressing circus of failure, lying, and dashed hopes this year was. So 2013 deserves as its denouement Tila Tequila…
It was defenestration
December 7, 2013
December 6, 2013, was an extremely unpleasant day. I’ll be glad to see the end of 2013. Annus horriblus. Tim and I have been saying for ages, “The next year cannot possibly be worse than this one was,” and then it would be. Well, 2014 cannot possibly be worse than 2013 because this year was…
What the Japanese said to me about Pearl Harbor
December 7, 2013
I lived in Tokyo from 1985 to 1991. The reason I left Japan was that I was burned out on the culture. Carmen felt the same way. We were tired of the strangeness, the drinking, the deeply unhealthy attitude toward sex, and the inability of the Japanese to form close relationships with foreigners. We were…