I have far too many bizarre physical problems to list. Here are the major ones. Three kidneys, three cowlicks, a baby tooth with no permanent tooth under it, no gastrocnemius on my right calf, the longest ear canals in medical history, and Meniere’s disease. The weirdest issue is that when I shave, the skin on…
The pain of cashews and broccoli
February 23, 2014
About two weeks before Mom had her cancer surgery on April 4, 2013, she began to starve herself. I’ve written before why she did it. The law of unintended consequences bit us all in the ass: Mom, her parents, the nuns, Tim, me—everybody. Collectively, we were screwed. There’s no recourse. It happened, and it can’t…
No context for male beauty
February 23, 2014
Our popular culture is very cruel. I know, because I spent ten years in the factory that creates it. This cruelty bleeds over into the rest of our culture, which is deeply unhealthy. We hear on a daily basis about the stresses women are under to be beautiful. Although I have a certain amount of…
Watch for patterns
February 20, 2014
In Ghosts and Ballyhoo, one of the Lessons Learned is “Watch for Patterns,” pages 273-274. Watch for the patterns. They might help you perceive your destiny, make the right decisions, dodge a lot of grief, and endure that which you thought you couldn’t. A month ago, my cardiologist told me that I’d lost all the…
Memories no longer hurt
February 16, 2014
For most of my life, memories were torture. They were like pitiless satires of my aspirations, mocking everything I’d ever attempted. All I had to do was try to sleep, and I’d be flooded with memories of disaster, horror, pain, humiliation, and failure. Around 2007 it started to change, as I realized that each catastrophe…
The urn does not care
February 9, 2014
I’ve been told that my posts about my father cause anger. Though I’m under no obligation to explain anything, I will. My intention is to chronicle a life gone awry. I do this to banish lingering pain. Some of that pain is the result of things my father did to me, and some is the…
An age of wonderment
February 1, 2014
Scott Thunes is in the hospital. His situation isn’t to be minimized. However, he picked one of the best times in history to have a significant health issue. We live in an age of wonderment. In the last two decades, the global poverty rate had been cut in half. It appears that the trend will…
Introducing my two favorite con artists
January 23, 2014
I’d like to introduce you to my two favorite con artists, Mike Albee and Lura Dold of Sandpiper Publicity. Stand up, kids! Don’t be shy. Mike also runs another fake company, Magnus Publicity. Let’s give Mike and Lura a hand! Mike has a long history of defrauding people. Unfortunately for me I didn’t see this…
The calm before the storm
January 17, 2014
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the day Mom and Dad took their first steps on the journeys that removed them from my life. Tim and I didn’t commemorate it in any special way. We commemorate our parents daily, talking about what they did and why. The one favor our parents did us by dying…