Wednesday 10/23/24 We have a saying here: You can't fake voice. A lot of people try and fake voice in their writing. You have stiff,...

Monday 10/21/24 Yesterday when I got to the bottom of the Monument after I had finished my circuits, there was a line of people waiting...

Saturday 10/19/24 Yankees great Joe DiMaggio used to play every game the best that he could. Even though there were many games that...

Friday 10/18/24 I'm reading back "Words of Rain" ten, twelve, twenty times, before calling it finally done. It's sick how good this is. I...

Thursday 10/17/24 You ready to see some more of the best writing in the world? Because that's what the fiction in Granta is supposed to...

Thursday 10/17/24 People don't understand the difference between "favorite" and "best." That's how loath they are to think and how...

Wednesday 10/16/24 I swear, looking at what these people write, seeing it as anyone would see it for how bad it is if they're actually...

Wednesday 10/16/24 Just jotting down a few further thoughts about M.R. James' story, "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad." It may...

Tuesday 10/15/24 I'll have to keep this one brief, as American Short Fiction is no longer running stories in full on their website--or...

Tuesday 10/15/24 What can you say? *** Mom,   I was trying to think if there was anything I could do to make this day easier for you. I...

Tuesday 10/15/24 I've been reading some guy's dissertation on the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star," focusing on the 2/27/69 version on...

Friday 10/11/24 I will get to meatier matters soon. This will just be some sports notes. Most people would probably like to see an NLCS...

Thursday 10/10/24 October 21 is the tenth anniversary of my sister Kerrin's death and I have been trying to think of something nice I...

Thursday 10/10/24 I wanted to say a few words about former Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant, who died the other day. Usually, discussion about...

Monday 10/7/24 Bob Costas can't help himself. He kept himself reined in the other night, but he's back to palavering and trying to be...

Monday 10/7/24 This is one of those horror films in which the monster is also the victim, but the teen/family saga version. Nancy is a...

Monday 10/7/24 There was plenty of exciting baseball over the weekend. Nothing in sports beats baseball in October. Padres-Dodgers has...

Friday 10/4/24 People will defend anything except greatness. Any behavior, any kind of person, any entity. People want to tear down...

Wednesday 10/2/24 I'm glad that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein (1818) so that we have much of what followed from it--like the James...

Tuesday 10/1/24 We'll do another Pete Rose one. We talked about his raping earlier , in addition to providing facts about who he was as a...

Tuesday 10/1/24 They can play all their games, give out their bullshit awards, dry hump each to death in their sinecure-sandboxes, but...

Tuesday 10/1/24 Pete Rose died yesterday, the day before the baseball playoffs begin, which feels oddly fitting. In 1975, Pete Rose was...

Monday 9/30/24 I don't know if the Patriots are the worst team in the NFL, but I do know they're close. The main reason for that is...

Monday 9/30/24 What am I suggesting by that opening statement? That you change how you write? No, not necessarily. I meant it as I said...