Tuesday 10/28/25 This is part of an exchange I had this morning with an English professor and provost I've known for thirty years. You don't even want to see the first letter from me. It involves Megan Sexton of the literary journal Five Points and her blatant corruption. I'm not going to include that here, because I'll be featuring it in a stand-alone entry exposing what she's all about and how and why she does what she does. She's revolting and her actions are indefensible

Tuesday 10/28/25 Damn. Would you look at that. You’re probably just tired. Who wouldn’t be? I say those words to myself so often it’s like I’ve stopped understanding their meaning as words and I’m this raw animal trying to process cadences except they’re mine. But tired or not I’d piss the bed of my life if that meant waking up from what’s hard to believe isn’t a nightmare if I wasn't already running a marathon without a finish line that has all of these other races insid

Tuesday 10/28/25 Game 3 of the World Series was still going when I woke up. Then I went back to sleep and it was still going a couple hours later when I got up for good. My guess is you won't see something like this again. MLB will change the postseason rules as a result of that game and the regular season ghost runner set-up will take over in the playoffs. These teams have so much invested in their pitchers who are, of course, babied and break down easier than ever. Everythi

Like I said, it's good. At least I don’t have to think that much to know that their father couldn’t have done any better, even if that’s too low a bar to try and salvage. Call in the archeologists, where’s the excavator, you want a core sample while we’re down here? Small mercies are like rain your body can’t verify is falling when you hold your palm out after you see some drops in the headlights of a car that’s come to a stop near where you’re standing. There they are.

Monday 10/27/25 I have not been doing a good job doing anything. At the task of doing anything. There is no point to any of it right now and no point in living or being here. If I create something, that thing is the thing it is, at the level it is, but that's the end of it. The thing remains here with me. That is is the best thing there is doesn't matter. It's still a thing that just sits here unseen by anyone save me. I don't think anyone can understand how hard it then is t

Thursday 10/23/25 More work yesterday on "You're Probably Just Tired" after a few days away from it. Yeah, definitely got something here. Keep working on it. Tuesday was the eleventh anniversary of my sister's death. This is always an awful day for my mother. Some years she doesn't go out at all it seems like for a week or two leading up to it. That wasn't the case this year. I know she saw a friend of hers and babysat the kids. But the day itself was very bad. I called her w

Wednesday 10/22/25 It's as if people are willfully wrong as some assertion of their freedom. Often I don't think they believe what they so strenuously insist they believe. It's not an important topic, but take the game of Jeremy Swayman. Marchand returned to Boston last night, was given a gushy tribute, cried on the bench, then tallied two assists in the Panthers' 4-3 victory over the Bruins. Swayman had one of his standard 82% save nights. His GAA average for the season is n

Tuesday 10/21/25 I stayed up to watch all of the Blue Jays-Mariners Game 7 ALCS game last night (then was back at it by four), which the Jays took 3-1 thanks to a three-run seventh inning homer by George Springer. He's always been excellent in the postseason and is still delivering the biggest of hits like that in his age thirty-five season. Impressive. I wouldn't say that the Mariners choked in this series despite losing after taking the first two games on the road in Toront

Monday 10/20/25 Speaking of Lilah... I'm heading out to run stairs now, but as I was getting ready to leave, my sister sent me something Lilah wrote in a journal they keep for school. At the end of each week, there's a Friday Letter that the recipient may then respond to. Here's what Lilah wrote last Friday: And here was my response to my sister: I feel the same way. This is what happens when you're smart, and all the more so in 2025's America, where there are fewer intellige

Monday 10/20/25 I tell myself I'm going to stretch more, and then I just do it every now and again, usually arriving at whatever stairs I'll be running and beginning cold, but this really has to change. There's no excuse for me not to be stretching, and it's folly. I haven't done great with the stairs over the last three days, running only 3000 of them at City Hall on Saturday after much work and before I hustled out to Chestnut Hill. I did walk six miles on Friday, three on

Saturday 10/18/25 I got something here that might really be something. It's short. All one paragraph. Told in the first person by a woman who's tired Tired in Trump's America AI America Trump and AI aren't mentioned directly Cooperate America She's an exhausted single parent trying to stretch a dollar, taking care of her elderly parents with no help from her siblings and her being the asshole if she brings that up Going on bad dates, having another relationship end, failing t

Thursday 10/16/25 As we're in October, I thought I'd try and touch upon various eldritch matters in these pages--not that we need the calendar to provide a reason for that. I recently wrote a piece on 1943's The Return of the Vampire , which stars Bela Lugosi in a kind of unofficial reprise of his Dracula role from the 1931 film of the same name, which I think is the most influential horror film ever made. The 1931 film was made for Universal, of course, whereas this early 19

Wednesday 10/15/25 In first grade, the art class I was in must have fallen behind--or our teacher had fallen behind with what she wanted us to be doing--because we came in one Friday and it said "Ketchup Day" on the board, by which the teacher meant getting caught up. I'd imagine that confused some kids. But this entry will catch matters up with fitness related pursuits. I have not ran circuits of stairs in the Bunker Hill Monument since September 30. I don't know how you can

Tuesday 10/14/25 The Baltimore Ravens are 1-5. I don't mind that at all. Despite the Ravens being 1-5, they are credited with a 37% chance of making the playoffs. What do these odds makers in Las Vegas know? How are they getting that number? They must know something. Word is that the Red Sox are bringing back their 2025 coaching staff in 2026, including the third base coach. I do mind this. People have always said that Jason Varitek will be some outstanding manager, but my fe

Sunday 10/12/25 My mother had the follow-up consultation for her gall bladder procedure. All appears well. I think she's feeling better....

Saturday 10/11/25 As the title of this entry says. It's about twenty past six on Saturday morning here on 10/11, and I wanted to send you something. I've been meaning to print this out and mail it to you. Due to its length, I figured it'd be easier for you to read that way, but perhaps you have a printer handy. I also have a few others I've wanted to send you as well, and this morning I figured I'd just go ahead with this one here, and send what I send in the mail later on, a

Saturday 10/11/25 There have been a number of sports entries on here lately. Many art-related ones are coming, and also a great many...

Friday 10/10/25 Baseball fans are too quick to say, "Blow it up!" and "Everyone must go!" and "This roster could never get it done!" when...

Thursday 10/9/25 You weren't the person you should have been when you were with someone. Then after you don't know them, not only are...

Wednesday 10/8/25 I believe that people--and this includes players and coaches on teams--are too quick to think that a team has no...

Tuesday 10/7/25 You know how sometimes you're listening to something--like a podcast or a radio show--and the people doing the talking...

Tuesday 10/7/25 The 1979 "We Are Family" Pittsburgh Pirates had a banner on the top of their dugout that read THE FAMILY. Offhand, I...

Monday 10/6/25 A letter this morning from someone I've known longer than almost anyone with whom I speak. Read through a lot this morning...

Monday 10/6/25 Essentially what it says above. From yesterday. Seemed a useful, telling document so it is included here. The coals are...