Target Practice

We have discussions in my English class about all kinds of delicate issues: race, growing up and sexuality, family traumas. I write questions on a plastic sheet on the overhead, and they all complain about my handwriting and write. Then I sit on my stool and we discuss. In the novel we just finished, a […]

Everything I Needed to Know About Life I Learned from the Oscar-Winning Film “Amadeus”

“Amadeus” features such haunting images as an old man dripping blood from a suicide attempt and a slumped corpse being thrown into a pauper’s grave and covered with lime. (I asked about that and learned what lime was.) The movie, frankly, scared me to death.

Clashing

If John Waters can be John Waters, I feel honor-bound to be myself. I’ve just been enjoying his book Role Models, although I’ve never had any interest in his films. He has a chapter on fashion that drove me to wear lemon and khaki. I just felt like it. Later in the book, he has […]

Whaling

I had a boyfriend who refused to read “Bartleby the Scrivener.” Over and over again he refused. Some people get that. Some people don’t. I’m in a Melville mood lately. Forgive me. I was at Silver Dollar City last weekend. The weather was perfect, and people were making things with their hands. If I were […]