It happens every year, you know, around Christmastime. The suicide rate goes up, as does the attempted suicide rate. And it pretty much extends from Christmas Day on into New Year’s Eve, according to a cop I know. People drink way too much, of course. And they get to thinking about how lonely they are, [...]

When I was a kid, I used to love to take the caps off of Bic pens and set them on fire. I’d light the very tip of the clippy extension, typically with a paper match stolen from my mother’s kitchen, and hold the rocket-shaped cap as the plastic caught fire.  Then, little fireballs would [...]

Quite often the thing you need to do…. ….is the last thing you usually consider. And that is: Always watch out for the toys.

The ornaments you put on your Christmas tree often say quite a bit about your state of mind during the year-end holidays. For example, some ornaments suggest wistful recollections of Christmases past, of childhood memories. They make you think of the things you had growing up, the movies and TV shows you loved, and the [...]

“Loving certain people is like loving god: there is no payoff, and it’s just easier to hate them.”

I have wanted to do this for a long time. If I had started trying to be a writer of fiction twenty years ago, I would have failed because I did not have the experiences I believe one needs from life to tell a good story. At least not the kind of stories I want [...]