This short film has been getting a lot of buzz. It’s called Lights Out and is only 128 seconds long. Some people have said it’s the most frightening movie ever made. It takes more to scare me, but I’ll let you be the judge. Personally I wasn’t scared at all. I didn’t even flinch. You…
The theft ring strikes again
March 24, 2014
As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a theft ring in the United States Postal Service. It’s based in New York. The American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, negotiated rules that when mail from a foreign country goes missing, American postal inspectors can’t look for it. Instead, the country from which the mail originated has to investigate. The…
What separates me from my brother Tim
March 24, 2014
I’ve written a lot about my brother Tim. He and my brother Eric are the people to whom I’m closest in the world. Tim designed the covers of all three books in the Ghosts Trilogy. Each cover was one basically “one and we’re done.” We discussed ideas for Ghosts and Ballyhoo, but after that I…
I will not submit
March 21, 2014
The death of my father changed me in fundamental ways. Probably the most significant consequence of Dad’s passing was that it made me aware of how much of my life I’d given over to him. He got what he wanted, regardless of the cost to others. Now that he’s no longer here, you need to…
Never heard of this instrument
March 20, 2014
I began playing the bass at eighteen. When I was thirty, I became a music journalist, a job I held for ten years. My brother Pat Wictor is a professional folk singer. From 2002 until 2012 I didn’t listen to music because it was too painful, representing the loss of all that I loved. Still,…
Another valuable concept destroyed
March 20, 2014
Jill Filipovic recently wrote a piece titled, “We’ve Gone Too Far with ‘Trigger Warnings.’” It’s about how university students are demanding that virtually everything unpleasant have a “trigger warning,” meaning a disclaimer that will alert sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder that they may read or see something that could trigger a flashback. The result? Another…
You won’t like living in the Third World
March 18, 2014
I was born in Venezuela and lived there until I was ten. Venezuela was and is a Third World nation. A significant percentage of our fellow citizens want us to be a Third World nation. You won’t like it. This photo was taken in Caripito on March 25, 1966. I’m in the hard hat, Tim…
Not all sexism is equal
March 17, 2014
I had a friend I called “Lola” in Ghosts and Ballyhoo. She was a brilliant musician, an incredible athlete, had a great sense of humor, and could draw anything. Now that Mom and Dad are gone, I can admit that when I was eighteen in Stavanger, Norway, Lola used to sneak over at night and…
Not your problem
March 16, 2014
I’m mentally ill. But it’s not your problem. Some of my mental illness is genetic. I have clinical depression on both sides of the family. One relative lived by herself for decades, filling each room of her house with junk until there were piles that reached the ceilings. She used a chamberpot and emptied it…
