Tori Amos and the Book

So, in the last chapter, there’s a point when almost everyone is a minster’s kid–Tori Amos, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, the main character, her possessed friend–and the main character puts “God” on to play and the possessing spirit lets them get no further than the first line before insisting they turn it off. I’m not [...]

Come See Me Read!

If you belong to the Gordon Jewish Community Center, it’s free. If not, it’s $15. In the meantime, I will be calling nm every day just whispering “Chevra Kadisha” into the phone until I either pronounce it correctly or she hits me with her umbrella, which, lucky for me, will be difficult since I will [...]

Lord Almighty, We Are Governed by Perverts

Click here if you want to read about state legislators sitting around speculating on who might suckle at his mother’s breast. Luckily, sanity prevailed. Still, there’s something really weird about grown-ass people sitting around being “But what about five?” “Oh, what about 35?!” I give props to Mike Faulk for getting this passed out of [...]

Day Two of Finally Getting Over This Cold

Considering that Day One was Monday, that should tell you how this is going. Today I was like, damn it, I am going to walk this dog if it’s the last thing I do! And, really, by the time I got to the big hackberry in the AT&T yard, I thought it might be. I [...]

Another Open Letter to Ron Ramsey

Dear Ron Ramsey, I’m probably not going to write you every day, though clearly you could use being written to every day, because I lack ambition and stick-to-it-iveness. But I will say that whoever writes your press releases is practically poetic. However, this General Assembly will not be intimidated by nomadic bands of professional agitators [...]

The Penis Problem

One thing I want to suss out in this whole “But what if our women have to use the bathroom with someone who  had a penis?!” hysteria (ha!) is that there are a couple of underlying assumptions we should really ask ourselves if we are okay with. One is pretty basic–do we want a small, [...]

This Cold is Somewhat Annoying

I had lunch with Smiley and his friend yesterday over at Blackstone, which is a two and a half block downhill walk from my office. And I was feeling good for the first block, like “Woo hoo, outside, fresh air, moving!” and by the time I got to the restaurant, I felt like I had [...]

Heritage, Not Hate

Oh, lord, I could not resist using that as a title. But I read this post the other day about whether being gay runs in families. And, of course, with all the talk about whether there’s a genetic component to being gay, that’s the question kind of being danced around. But David’s spin on it [...]

What Goes on in those Southern Baptist Bathrooms?!

Maybe it’s because I share a bathroom with my brother and because I have shared bathrooms with men I’m not related to and because I’ve shared bathrooms with trans men and women and gay men and lesbian women, but I am starting to wonder if Southern Baptist leaders do something different in the bathroom than [...]

Ron Ramsey, YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF THE STATE!!!!!!!!

Good lord. Will someone go tell Ron Ramsey that he’s supposed to be fucking running things?! Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey blames criticism of the legislature on the news media, which he says focuses on the weird and controversial. “You all ask me about things I haven’t even heard of until you all walk into this [...]

One Nice Thing About Being Sick During the Time Change

I went to bed when the clock said 9:15 and I gave no thought to how ridiculous it was to go to bed at what was, until last week, often when the Butcher gets off work. I am feeling better, though, just in time to start the work week. There’s some unfairness there, I tell [...]

Why One Plants Bulbs

I didn’t know this when I planted my bulbs, but you plant bulbs precisely for days like this, when you’re feeling like crap and you feel like you’re never going to feel better and because you’re never going to feel better, your yard is going to look like crap. And then you go out and [...]

How I Spent My Weekend

I was really, really hoping to feel better today than I do, but it occurs to me that I haven’t really felt right since last Monday when my head tried to kill me, so, a gradual decline is probably going to be matched by gradual improvement. Yesterday was shot, really. I spent it sleeping and [...]

Oh, Poor Bill Ketron

I got off my sickbed to note that Bill Ketron is hurt, deeply hurt, that his un-American bullshit anti-Muslim legislation, which was written by a guy who thinks it’s a shame black people and women can vote, is upsetting people. I still contend it’s not clear if Ketron even knows what’s in the bill, so [...]

The Bathroom at Work

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve heard me complaining on and off for years about the bathroom here at work–the blood, the poop smears, the peeing on the seats, the weird crap wiped on walls, etc. I mean, every morning it looks fine, so it’s not like the cleaning crew is slacking, but damn, [...]

The World is Hard and Small

It’s weird, these big natural disasters in places like Japan and Australia. This morning, we woke up to the news and our first thought was “Holy shit, C. is there!” He is fine. But you turn on the news and you watch for a little bit anyway and I just couldn’t bring myself to say [...]

“Melacholy Indie Pop”

Over at We Own This Town, they describe the new Anchor Thieves album as “melancholy indie pop.” I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds right. It’s exactly the kind of music you put on when it’s raining so that you can feel justified sitting around wondering why you never kissed that sharp-boned girl [...]

Amanda Hocking Confirms My Opinion

I got an email about Amanda Hocking, basically saying “You’ve got a great blog and lots of twitter followers and a cool book. Why didn’t this happen to you?” And I was like “No shit. Where is my million dollars?” And then we had a laugh. Well, I laughed. You have to get lucky, really. [...]

Beer and Banana is Not a Taste I Would Enjoy

I’m running late, but someone just sent me this TED talk and it has blown my mind. I wonder if I can stuff it up Pith commenters’ noses? Ha, just kidding.

It Only Took Three Weeks or So

But I finally figured out that, on the Butcher’s long days, I should come home and eat before going to get him. Oh, what a much better evening than the ones spent hungry huddled behind Nolensville Road. Listening to Music City Roots tonight, though, I decided I’m going to stop worrying about my book being [...]

You Know What’s Weird?

We have a lot of flattish land that is along railroad tracks or roads in windy areas. Why don’t we have wind turbines?

The Butcher’s Job

I am still not in a routine about it. But yet again, he opened his wallet last night and magically paid for some shit we needed. We have (triple underscore) to get his car running again, because this nonsense of me sitting in a dingy parking lot just off Nolensville Road every night is cramping [...]

The Henry Granju Case Has Its Share of Black Humor

I will say up front that I’m not sure I would have lived through what Katie Allison Granju is going through, but man, I laughed when I read this part of her post today: Chris pleaded with him to find out what R and Y’s role in the overdose and physical injuries might have been, [...]

The Atomic Cake

Oh, I forgot to tell you the most interesting thing about my Grandma’s birthday. She wanted an “atomic cake,” which none of us had heard of, but my aunt called all over and found a bakery in Orland Park that makes them. A layer of yellow, banana-y cake, some banana toping, a layer of white [...]

Things are Blooming

One thing I love about Tennessee is that right about now, when you think winter is going to be forever and it will just always be cold and muddy, things start to bloom. One daffodil in my yard, the redbuds, some white things I didn’t recognize. Sure, it’s no good for one’s allergies, but it’s [...]