I wasn’t going to announce this until it was official, but what the heck. I have a new business-oriented website. There. Now it’s out. Actually, this has been some time in the making. You see, I’ve been thinking a lot… Read More ›
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Is one of these your perfect journal?
Yes, it’s true: I have a lot of blank books DOZENS OF THEM, tucked away in a drawer, waiting to be filled with the URLs of websites I’ve discovered, lists of books to read, ideas, things overheard on the subway,… Read More ›
Make anything funny with this one simple trick
LAST MONTH my family went on a mission. It was my son’s idea, and it went like this: from a hat each one of us picked the name of a family member and went to the local department store with… Read More ›
11 teeny-tiny, totally do-able things that are great for your life
WHAT IF I SAID you can change your life for the better, and that all you’ll need is a gazillion dollars, a whackload of planning, and years of back-breaking effort? “That’s not very helpful or surprising,” you’d say. Most of… Read More ›
Twelve things Millennials have amazingly never experienced
Show a Millennial a 20-D printer that can make a functioning human liver out of silicone pellets, and they’ll say “That’s awesome”— which is what they say about a new craft beer or the latest Drake song. What does blow the minds of Millennials is when you tell them that you saw the Rolling Stones in the 1970s for five dollars.
Dear Mister Captain—please let me on the life boat
NOTE—This piece is based on a writing assignment in the book 642 Things to Write About, published by the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto: “Only ten people will fit in the life raft. Convince the Captain that you should be one… Read More ›
How my HAPPINESS CRYSTAL will destroy the business of making people unhappy
A FEW YEARS AGO a fictional person I’ll call Max discovered video games. He loved to play Internet games on the family desktop computer. They were freely available and provided the occasional hour or-so, here and there, of fun. But… Read More ›
The legendary feats of John Wick, assassin—continued
AN EX-HITMAN [Keanu Reeves] comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him. With New York City as its bullet-riddled playground, John Wick is a fresh and stylized take on the assassin genre. Here is… Read More ›
Running explained
RUNNING WAS INVENTED 4,600,000 years ago by our human ancestors, Australopithecus. In the 34th Century BCE, ancient Sumerians called this activity Naputu—a verb meaning “to not get yourself eaten by wild animals.” Four thousand years ago, religious festivals led to… Read More ›
How my school days prepared me for a world which doesn’t exist, and didn’t prepare me for the one that does
SCHOOL DAYS. They were so long ago, you probably don’t remember them. Or maybe what you remember didn’t happen. I’m talking about you, not about me. My memories, of being the team captain and MVP, are as sound as any… Read More ›
An open letter to Stephen King
I‘VE JUST FINISHED On Writing. It’s been years since I’ve read one of your books, and I enjoyed this one enough that I’ll be reading another soon. We have some things in common. Like you, I started a satirical magazine… Read More ›
My Grade 11 English Teacher, Mrs. Joyce, Marks Christmas Carols
Jingle Bells Obviously the bells jingle: that’s what they are made to do. Try “bells, bells all the way.” (See Strunk and White, “Omit needless words.”) Also, does the protagonist have some sort of objection to a multi-horse and/or closed… Read More ›
5 tell-tale warning signs that you may be a writer
Warning: you may be a writer! WHAT IS A WRITER? The screen shot above has some suggestions: writers are crazy, forgetful and always selling someone out. Now, I’m a writer and I must object to this libel. I am not… Read More ›
This was my brain on 70s songs
TO ME, the 1970s was the decade of memorable music. When I look back, I see a more relaxed and care-free time than now. You could write a song about anything—like driving around in a truck, with a bunch of… Read More ›
Are you amazing and full of life? Well here is how you know.
A WISE MAN once said that a cluttered desk is the sign of a brilliant, active mind. And the reason the wise man said this is that people kept coming into his office and saying Oh my god—LOOK AT YOUR… Read More ›
