Wednesday 6/24/26 A letter in response to someone who wrote me asking for a blurb which I include here as I think it says what needs to be said about blurbs and writers and which no one else would say. Dear (), This is from early last month, and I apologize for the delay in just getting back to you on this late June Saturday morning. I'm afraid I don't check this inbox that often and have been dealing with various matters and writing and really not much else. First of a

Wednesday 6/24/26 I thought Buster Posey would excel in his role of running the San Francisco Giants, but he's not the person for that job. You have these knuckle-dragging athletes refusing to wear a piece of clothing for a Pride night, which is bad enough. It's rare that athletes aren't total morons. Basically illiterate. Clueless about the world. Many of them are going to claim to be "Christians." They'll say it's wrong to be gay, but they'll bang everything that moves on t

Wednesday 6/24/26 I've not done a good job with fitness lately. I'm displeased with where I'm at and disappointed in myself. My legs should be stronger and not feel like they're wearing out in the muscles around the knees when I get to a certain point of stairs in the Bunker Hill Monument, and my breathing ought to be much better than it has been. It's been frustrating and disappointing and I haven't done enough about it. I feel like the last time I was at all closer to where

Tuesday 6/23/26 A Sunday morning music recommendation: the Nat King Cole Trio's The Complete Capitol Transcription Sessions. These were cut, usually in a single take, between 1946 and 1950 for distribution to radio stations for airplay. They're loose/aerated in the best way--not sloppy, but with that in-the-moment feel. People tend to think Cole was "only" a singer (albeit one of the finest), but his trio was an outstanding jazz outfit. If someone asked me--especially someone

Monday 6/22/26 Something I sent to some fathers I know late yesterday afternoon. Happy Father's Day. Ordinarily I'd say something more here, reach out individually, or send something more substantial--like a finished work--but lately I've been a candle without a wick, and a nub of a candle at that. I feel like a flame gone out; or going out. It has been hard. But I'll share this as...well, not a gift, but, you know. This is an ugly world getting uglier. There has b

Saturday 6/20/26 Yesterday was the latest in a series of days it was hard to survive. I don't know how else to put it. I think that's the best way of saying it. Like being chased by death and you run, and run, and run, find a spot to hide in until it's technically tomorrow. I have nothing to live for. It's not going to get better. There can be nothing good for me in this world. I haven't gone outside in three days. I hadn't showered in nearly that long until I made myself do

Friday 6/19/26 The Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies are the only teams in the league with less than 30 wins. After yesterday's loss at Fenway to Toronto, the Red Sox are now 29-43. Your record looks uglier when you're 20-something and 40-something rather than 30-something and 40-something. When the numbers skip like that. But now we're talking the aesthetics of sub-.500 records. This is now a team you have to actively look away from. You don't want to see and probably

Thursday 6/18/26 There’s never been a hero who thought, “Someone else should be doing this instead of me.” If a hero cries, they dry their tears so that they can see better. A hero knows that the road isn’t the only thing you must keep your eyes on. They may tremble in the lonely darkness for what tomorrow could bring. They can become as afraid as anyone has ever been, but that doesn’t make them weak, because a hero understands that being

Wednesday 6/17/26 The people who make you listen to their music because they’re too rude and entitled to use headphones are never listening to Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel, are they? Back in the 1990s, I'd share recordings sometimes with people of F. Scott Fitzgerald reading bits of Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale," lines from Shakespeare's "Othello," and John Masefield's "On Growing Old," hosted by a University of South Carolina web page. That page is gone, but the recordi

Tuesday 6/16/26 Sorry, Jimmy J., hate to do this to you again--nothing personal, just making a point. Today is Bloomsday, with June 16 being the date on which the events of James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, take place. We did that earlier prose off pitting the end of Joyce's short story, "The Dead," which is frequently touted as the best prose in the English language, against an excerpt from "Dead Thomas," part of There Is No Doubt: Story Girls, and what a beat down we had there.

Sunday 6/14/26 I got to Charlestown early today because there were some things I wanted to do. During some of that time there I sat on a bench facing the lodge of the Bunker Hill Monument and watched and listened to the house sparrows. They had nests on each side of the entranceway behind the columns. That's all I did for a while. Simply (or not so simply) watched and listened to the birds. Witnessed life. Heard their songs and commentary. Tips. Ministrations. Pacifications.

Sunday 6/14/26 I saw an anecdote that someone had shared about Sky Saxon, lead singer and I suppose you could say lead visionary of the 1960s Los Angeles garage band the Seeds, a group I've been listening to since I was first driving around in high school. Someone they knew--could have been a relative, I don't recall--was hosting Saxon overnight following his gig in the area. After the show and at this person's home, Saxon did all the drugs, wanted to have group sex, and woul

Saturday 6/13/26 Last Saturday, I had an eventful time of it at the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. I went over there looking to do quite a few circuits. Sometimes I'll have a big number in mind. Others factors may mitigate against reaching that goal--like the humidity--but I know when it's time to try and challenge myself. Maybe I've not been doing so great on the stair score in the days leading up to that day, or perhaps I need to try and exhaust myself, just blast as

Friday 6/12/26 Last Friday, my nephew Charlie finished sixth grade and his sister Lilah finished fourth grade. Well, not technically. Camp started for them on Monday, so they sat out the actual last day of school. Lilah's class had been challenged to read 300 pages over the last two weeks of the school year. There was a contest, with the winner receiving a lunch delivered from an eatery of their choosing. Lilah won, having read 1300 pages. I wonder what percentage of American

Friday 6/12/26 We're all getting older. I don't think that's really true as people mean it. One is here, doing what one does, pursuing what one is pursuing, if that's relevant. The state you take as that is all happening is in many ways up to you. How you decide to be. What you want yourself to be. In your make-up, attitude, views, body. What you're aware of. Whether those are the things right outside your door or more and more often just the things that are part of your past

Thursday 6/11/26 A recording I've been listening to lately: T.S. Eliot at an NYC Y at Christmastime 1950 talking and reading his poetry. Eliot's verse (and 1950s sci-fi) anticipated our current collective and individual--for lack of a better word--state of mind and humanness (or absence thereof) just about as well as anything. The Great Gildersleeve was a mid-century radio program. It’s excellent—one of the best of this medium that produced so much art that is seldomly consid

Thursday 6/11/26 During yesterday's ballgame, the 2026 Boston Red Sox achieved something that hasn't been done in the history of baseball going back to 1901, and probably before that, save that we don't technically know for sure because of the prior state of record keeping: the first three batters in their line-up each struck out three times in their first three at-bats. It was 5-0 Rays in the eighth inning, when the hapless Caleb Durbin--a denizen of the bottom portion of th

Wednesday 6/10/26 Had a series of dreams last night about a woman from UMass I once dated. Well, she referred to it as dating. One of those stints coming back before I stopped drinking, and then another after I had stopped and we ran into each other in the Common. I mention drinking like this (and not as some "once I was the monster Mr. Hyde and then I was the non-monster Dr. Jekyll" deal, because that wouldn't be true, though giving up drinking was a part of advancing furthe

Tuesday 6/9/26 Told you the NBA Finals weren't over. I said this to someone the other day and they were like, "Really?" all surprised, but also taking this seriously because it was I who said it. I know everything about sports history, I know everything about present day sports, and I usually have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen as pertains sports future. I'm not not going to say this because it is true and it's all worth saying. Ours is a world where people wil

Monday 6/8/26 Today is the anniversary of the day (in 2012) I once would have thought would always be the worst of my life, and/or the hardest, and which has since been proven not that because of the days that have followed and keep coming. Which doesn't diminish the sheer terror and pain of that day. It would have hurt me less if someone reached into my chest with their bare hand and pulled out my heart. Only for me not to die, but rather sit there indefinitely in agony. A M

Monday 6/8/26 I'd said I feel bad for Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy, and while that's true, I don't feel that bad for him. His upside, as such, is as a placeholder. He's no more than that. The Red Sox lost yesterday to the the Yankees after their bullpen imploded in the eighth inning. The Yankees won going away after it had been deadlocked 1-1. After the game Tracy said they played well and spoke about winning the next series in Tampa. Robot speak. As in, "If we follow t

Saturday 6/6/26 I treat this record as if it were a notebook at times and should do more of that. Assembled a list of films and television works that I need to watch soon for various reasons, pieces, books, projects. I Will Buy You (1956) High School (1968) High School II (1994) Belfast, Maine (1999) City Hall (2020) The House Across the Bay (1940) Backrooms (2026) Obsession (2026) The Headless Horseman (1934) The Werewolf (1956) At Land (1944) Witch's Cradle (1944) Anticipat

Saturday 6/6/26 Most impressive for the Knicks to take the first two games on the road against the Spurs. The Celtics should be paying attention to what this Knicks team is doing. They don't have the most fantastic roster. But they play as a team and their style is conducive to winning in the playoffs. The Celtics have more talent than the Knicks, but the Knicks are a better team. Unlike most, I don't think this is over yet. I wrote here yesterday that Wemby isn't a particula

Friday 6/5/26 This once would have been an odd remark, but the Red Sox are fortunate to be leaving Fenway Park to face two good teams in the Yankees and Rays on the road. The Old Towne Team dropped another home game yesterday and at the same time their series with the Orioles. I didn't realize this was a day game until after it was over. Brayan Bello got the start. Why, I don't know. He has a curious version of the yips in that he can't pitch the first inning. He'll only get