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  • Comparisons are odorous

    A long time ago, I began to take a serious interest in music; that is, listening to it, singing along with it, and indulging in fantasies about being a musician. I was about 8 years old when Nickelodeon started running old episodes of The Monkees (a sitcom featuring a prefabricated band about the misadventures of a fictional…

  • Why I Need Superheroes

    As an awkward, neurotic, bespectacled smartypants, one might stereotypically presume that I am a fan of superheroes. And so I am! But only fairly recently. When I was a kid, I liked the cartoons and toys associated with characters like Spider-Man and Superman, but no more than I liked any other inescapable franchise at the…

  • I’d Like to Speak to the Manager

    Sunlight is the best disinfectant, so they say. Wicked deeds and ideas can be defeated by offering them up to public scrutiny, exposing them as morally unacceptable and shaming them out of the mainstream and out of power. There are times when this has been true, when the public has been exposed to some gross…

  • Who cares what I think?

    This is from the tenth edition of the Near-Earth Object newsletter, to which you can and should subscribe, right here. I thought it was about time I gave myself permission to write about things that weren’t all that important. We’re living through such Unprecedented Times when so many Serious Things are happening every hour, I…

  • 28 Lines of Verse for “Legends of Tomorrow”

    I wrote a sonnet about a TV show that’s been on for a while. I have really been enjoying the “Arrowverse” shows, Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. They’re so much fun, in large part because they so gleefully embrace their inherent silliness and absurdity. I‘m hoping to get fully caught up with all of the…

  • Ordinary Time

    This is from the ninth edition of the Near-Earth Object newsletter, to which you can and should subscribe, right here. I took some time off last week, which was desperately needed, and it gave me some extra time to do more extracurricular writing. So that’s good! I know it’s a cliche, but good lord it’s…

  • What if We Just Let Them Think They Won?

    The United States is politically held hostage by tens of millions of people living in a delusional version of reality. No matter the facts staring them in the face, just a little less than half of the electorate seems to believe in an alternate universe in which Trump won the election, left-wing terrorists are destroying…

  • My Old Enemy, Natural Selection

    I’m beginning to hate natural selection. I’m not talking about the theory of evolution as a scientific concept, I mean I am having some strong feelings about what a pain in the ass natural selection is to me, right now. If you’re new to my writing, let me just give you a quick status report:…

  • Letting Go of Hope

    I am trying to disconnect without isolating. I am trying to find meaning without validation. I am trying to unburden without irresponsibility. I am trying to be aware without being overwhelmed. I am trying to be at peace without being passive. I am trying to matter without having to ask whether I matter. I am…

  • Aspiring to Ordinary

    I grew up under a strange and rather painful contradiction. Those who loved me told me I was special, that I had greatness in me. My peers told me I was garbage, that I was beneath them. As a result, I spent a lot of energy just trying to pass as ordinary, hoping that my…

  • 160,000

    There were more than 160,000 new coronavirus cases today in the United States. In the span of 24 hours, a number of people equal to the population of Alexandria, Virginia were revealed to be infected. Yesterday, they hadn’t been counted yet. These cases, all 160,000-plus, are new today. Tomorrow, there will probably be just as…

  • Measured by how we are seen

    This is from the eighth edition of the Near-Earth Object newsletter, to which you can and should subscribe, right here. This project of producing newsletters and media at a somewhat regular clip, is still new to me, and I’m still trying to find the right mix of elements that make it really click. For my…

  • Homepage Hopping at the End of Democracy: How Are News Sites Presenting Trump’s Coup Attempt?

    I have a bad habit. When big, anxiety-producing events are taking place (and they always are now), I hop around to different news sites’ homepages to see how they are characterizing the situation. My guts are in a constant, immovable clench as I doomscroll and site-hop for any new development. Here’s what CNN’s homepage presented…

  • The Caretaker

    When Barack Obama picked Joe Biden to be his running mate in 2008, I was delighted. I had always been enthusiastic about Biden’s as a political figure, and loved his role in the ’08 primary campaign as a no-bullshit happy warrior. (Remember “a noun and a verb and 9/11?” So great. And even better considering how far…

  • If Trump Won’t Concede, I Have George W. Bush’s Address to the Nation Ready to Go

    Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Trump era has been how establishment Republicans have rolled over for him, aiding and abetting Trump in every asinine, narcissistic urge, never having the guts to do anything to stop him from laying waste to the republic. Mitt Romney has had his good moments, but they were too…