I HATE commercials. The main reason is the music and the actors. Since I don’t watch TV, I see commercials only on the Internet. They drive me crazy. For whatever reason advertising companies use ukulele music or jinga-jinga-jinga acoustic guitar music or tinkly piano kindergarten music or smarmy Wal-Mart slop. And the actors are always…
Wictors and airplanes don’t mix
April 23, 2014
I don’t know why, but Wictors and airplanes don’t mix. Chapter Three of Hallucinabulia: the Dream Diary of an Unintended Solitarian is devoted to my experiences with the Old Hag and my nightmares of being in airplane crashes. Dad hated flying as much as I do. It’s my final unconquerable fear. Though I’m not afraid…
Hurricane House, the Tin Man, and free e-books.
April 19, 2014
During our time in Venezuela, we spent three summers on Sanibel Island, Florida, in a little resort called Hurricane House. As best as Tim and I can remember, the years were 1969, 1970, and 1971. Tim took these photos in 1970; our brother Paul shot the picture of Tim. It was on one of these…
Have we turned a corner?
April 12, 2014
My father was a complex man. He had an astonishing intellect, a streak of brutality, great artistic skill, indestructible narcissism, bursts of amazing compassion, the total inability to admit when he was wrong, an urge to do the right thing, an adamant refusal to do the right thing, and secrets buried so deeply inside that…
A choice I never had to make
March 28, 2014
As Mom and Dad got more enfeebled, I became obsessed with a scenario that haunted me day and night. First I bought guns to protect my parents, since they were the victims of a home invasion, Mom could barely walk, and Dad kept getting into fights with strangers. But the guns wouldn’t have prevented what…
The armored man
November 9, 2013
One of my favorite films is John Frankenheimer’s Seconds. It’s been called the most depressing movie ever made. I disagree. It’s a cautionary tale. The movie is about a secret company that allows disaffected middle-aged men to fake their deaths and start over. For a fee the company gives the men plastic surgery, sets them…