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“You’re going to run out of paper,” my mom used to say as she watched me do homework. If I didn’t like how a letter looked, I’d start all over again. Sometimes it took a few pages to even make it past my name, which was the first thing written atop every assignment. She called […]

Otis Redding might hold the distinction of being the first person to break my heart, never mind that he’d already been dead for almost 40 years when it happened. I was 20 and watching John Sayles’s Lianna when “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” began to play. It was a movie I’d wanted to see

The waiting continues on one front — my overdue delivery remains lost — but it’s almost over on another: I worked on two reviews today that should be ready to post soon enough. A FedEx delay means there’s no photo to share of a hobby workstation, which is just as well because I’m still not

There are three days left in the month and I’m three reviews behind. Even I’m in suspense over whether it’ll get done or if I’ll have to tack the balance on to the four planned for April. I’d like to say I’ve been busy with the Miami Open but that hasn’t been the case. Nor

A demolition reveals hidden treasures; spotted while walking to lunch. This is very much in the spirit of the ghost town I want to build and is a scene I might try to recreate.

Muriel isn’t the first animal that greets you when you step onto our porch: Gerard’s an antique that’s supposedly been with the house for as long as it has existed (meaning he’s close to 100 years old). He’s handsomer than modern knockoffs and looks perfect on our door, an arched monstrosity that’s 3.5″ thick and carved

Did they ever make The Facts of Life action figures?* As recently mentioned at Cranky, I’m at a loss over how to proceed with the Firefighter review. Since dispatches from the McCheese office are usually only stickied for 24 hours, I’ll catch you up to speed: Firefighter, a Nancy McKeon telefilm from the mid-’80s, was

For the second time in less than a year, I forgot to pay a bill that normally wouldn’t escape my attention. The $13 sum was trivial and the error, like the late mortgage payment, was caught within the grace period. Unlike the utilities (and now the mortgage, too), our credit cards aren’t set to autopay;

It figures something like this happens on a night I can’t watch tennis: the Alcaraz/Zverev match has been suspended due to swarming bees. Is the ghost of Gloria Swanson haunting this year’s BNP Paribas Open? Is Iga Świątek their new queen?* While we’re asking questions, when will I post a new review? There’s a slight

When I fell in my driveway today, I didn’t bother looking to check whether anyone saw; it’s a busy street and if dog-walkers and stroller-pushers somehow missed that special moment, neighboring porch cams might’ve still preserved it for all eternity (or until it’s auto-deleted from the cloud).* Instead I thought “Figures,” because in the seconds