In Which I Admit Something Unsightly

When I see something like this, I burn with jealousy. It’s good, it’s motivational jealousy, but it’s there. I want Pith to write awesome shit about how great my book is. I want people to point people to my book. In this way, I feel like a teenager. When the Professor, her friend, and I [...]

Chapter Five, Ouch

I know I already wrote about Chapter Five and nothing has happened in the intervening hours except for a series of more horrifying nightmares. I wish it were considered good form to kick the creator of The Human Centipede because, though I would feel bad if he had to go his whole life dodging kicks, [...]

Oh, Chapter Five

Remember the good old days of Chapter Four where nothing was happening? Chapter five is pretty much the opposite. So far we have sex with the Devil, a threesome with the Devil, the Devil tries to break up a marriage and the Devil pouts. People plot to come rescue our hero. She does not want [...]

Different Types of Libel

Over at Got Medieval, you can learn more about the bizarre ways Christians have been libeling Jews through the ages. It’s not just the blood libel, folks.

“Blood Libel”

I honestly don’t even know where to start with this nonsense. Anyone who could use this term, when discussing the attempted assassination of a Jewish congressmember, about her own non-Jewish self… I wonder, I really do, sometimes, if some Christians in America really grasp that Jewish people exist and are not just metaphorical characters in [...]

Every Day I am Embarrassed to have Bought my Car from Beaman Toyota

This morning Lee Beaman used the money I gave him for my car to plot against the “homosexual agenda.” Hope he’s not waiting for me to bring my car back there to be serviced.

Oh, Lord, Chapter Five

So, the book opens with Hannah going out to Dickson to purchase some art painted by Kevin, the wrestler, who then becomes a procurer of interesting people and moonshine for her. So, I thought it would be nice, in the last chapter, if we could go back to Kevin’s art. Perhaps he could paint a [...]

Birds

We had a crow high in the tall oak way in the back of the yard this morning. It was the first one I’ve seen in the yard. A bunch live along Lloyd and holler between the two pastures, but this was the first one I’d seen in the yard. It hollered when we walked [...]

Trying Again

I’m going to make it into work today. That is my goal. As much as I love my house, I’m starting to feel a little cooped up in it.

Working on My Play List

I’m working on my playlist for Elias this evening and realizing that, not only do I like a lot of songs, but there are a lot of songs that I like just a second of so much, like there’s something very nice about the opening or about the piano part or about how the horns [...]

Huddle House, Literally

I tried to get into work this morning, but I got as far as the Kroger and said, “Well, fuck it, that was scary enough for one day,” and I came home. I did, however, see this right at the garage door, a thousand tiny bird footprints. I have to believe they were huddled by [...]

Briefly on the Arizona Situation

Over at Pith, I’m talking about how, until we hear from Loughner that he was influenced by Palin, we need to shut up on the blaming of her. He was an anti-government dude–during the Bush years, people who knew him thought he was a left-winger, during the Obama years, people thought he was far-right.  If [...]

Casper Mansker is Dead, Still, in Case You Were Wondering

Still you wonder about a guy who’s got to be held in his grave by a pile of rocks…

I’m Going to Start a “Cunt Country” Movement, but Shooter Jennings Can be in It

Over at The 9513, they’re talking about XXX music. There are some substantial points to be made, which I will make in a second, but let’s just start with the obvious. I mean, come on! XXX? “Oh, it’s about moonshine.” Bullshit. It’s about dick music. I hate this shit. Not dick music. I like me [...]

Gabrielle Giffords is Dead OR NOT

They’re saying she’s the first female politician in the United States to be assassinated. I don’t know if that’s so or just how it appears on a cursory glance at Wikipedia, but this just isn’t the kind of “first” you want to have happen, you know? Edited to add: Now they’re saying not.

When I Will Look the Other Way as You Knock the Shit Out of Your Kid in Public

So, I’m up the hill at the little grocery store which is packed with people coming home from work and there, in the meat aisle, is a woman pushing a cart. A boy of about nine or ten is standing in the basket of the cart, reaching up to try to touch the signs  that [...]

On the Bright Side, Democrats Write Inspiring Things Like This

You cannot have our hours of labor without also respecting our opinions and input and giving us the respect deserving of any other voter in this state.  I believe I speak for not only the younger generation, but party members of all ages, in saying that what ALL democrats need right now are leaders, not [...]

Oh, New Contacts, Why Aren’t You Here Yet?

I’m not even going to complain about yet another day with a headache, except to say that this one starts at my eye, runs across my face to my ear, and then down behind it into my shoulder. And it makes me feel almost drunk, in a bad way. Did I tell you about the [...]

Unless You are an Adulterer, You are Not an Adulterer

I have a bunch of blogs in my RSS reader left over from the Nashville is Talking days and slowly, obviously very slowly, I’ve been weeding out the ones I don’t care to read any more. Normally, these are sports blogs. But yesterday, I read a post by a woman in which she was talking [...]

We Need More Bridges

On my way home, I was stuck on Clarksville Pike in stand-still traffic for a half an hour. Then, it just cleared up. Whatever the problem was, there was no evidence left. No cops in cars doing paperwork. No shaken people standing around. But I realized, as I was sitting there, that there was no [...]

So “Big Boy Politics” = Being an Incompetent Bullying Asshole?

Lord almighty, people, I am so short on time and yet, I didn’t want you to miss further evidence of the Tennessee Democratic Party eating its young. Seriously, I don’t even know what to say. The number one rule of telling someone that, if they don’t get on board with your program, the next few [...]

Bad Noise News

I have worried this was the case all week, but today I cannot deny it. The AT&T building has fixed their awesome noise. Now, instead of sounding like some metal dragon waking to scream into the first verse of “The Immigrant Song,” it makes a completely ordinary iron-horsey snorty noise and kicks on. No, damn [...]

Full on Whining

Argh, seriously, I am pretty sure the only thing I can write 80,000 words on is how I cannot write 80,000 words on something. I’m trucking along tonight, feeling all good about my progress and I have five pages. Five measly pages. Five pages of, basically, a cocktail party. A cocktail party in which no [...]

Pastors’ Kids are All Over

I had lunch with the Professor and her friend, who is also a minister’s kid. “The fishbowl,” she called it, that scrutiny you live under, where your every behavior and your parents’ reaction to it is interpreted as a constant audition for whether your pastor parent is good enough for his or her job. At [...]

Qavak Songs over at Qarrtsiluni

I am blown away by these. I mean, just still almost shaking to read them. How can something sound both so utterly strange and so deeply familiar? “My cunt drips,/ wet as a walrus snout.” is just hilariously spot-on and bad-ass. And listen to the magic in this: “My son, the man I made myself.” [...]