Setting the Stage

For teachers, the last year was a new high in disrespect. But I’ve learned a lot from all the media coverage of education– I didn’t merely get beaten like a red-headed stepchild– and it helps me plan this next year. 1. An amazing number of people think they are experts in teaching because they were […]

Two Kinds of Gone

My great-grandma’s apartment is gone. Every day I drove past it to get my coffee. Two tall towers that never really belonged there—stuck up like two fingers in the midst of a short, small neighborhood. The buildings lost and lost, diminished and diminished like sandcastles on a beach, but sharp. They got sharper, not smoother. […]

Stray

We have a completely jungular side yard. The compound teeters on “Grey Gardens” territory now, minus the connections to old money. I found the cat, squatting to poop. I averted my eyes, waiting. It took a long time, and the way it happened, she looked ill. Maybe she ate something bad. I went upstairs and […]

Gangsters

A story of Tom Pendergast: “This was back in the ’30s. These kids were freezing. They slept in their coats. They had no coal. The mom went to ask Pendergast for help, and right away a truck pulled up with a huge load of coal. Every night, ever after, before they ate dinner, this woman […]