Stories of Suspense with a Sense of Humor
Broken systems have been on my mind of late—transportation, public health, safety—which reminded me of my father and his system for cars. He had a penchant for cheap, used cars. His favorites were both cheap and used. His heyday for crappy cars were the 1960s through the 1980s, a period when even new cars were … Read more
Last week, I was at the box office of the Miller Auditorium picking up my tickets and the guy at the next window was pissed. “I spent three-hundred dollars,” he boomed at the young woman on the other side of the window. “What do I get for three-hundred dollars?” She shrugged. It was like a … Read more
Grade schoolers are malleable. In fourth grade, the music teach put anyone interested in band through an assessment to determine what instrument they should play. Most of the girls were told to play flute, while most of the boys were told to play trombone. Mr. Duck, the band director, said it was because of our … Read more
I hope you had a pleasant holiday, however you celebrate. We had high hopes around here. Both our adult children were going to spend Christmas with us, arriving on Christmas Eve. But we had another guest arrive first. My wife was stricken with food poisoning. We both had stayed up late on Christmas Eve-eve getting … Read more
The other day I helped my son move into a house here in Lansing. Directly across the street, there was a fire in the front yard. It was past eight o’clock in the evening and pretty damn cold out. I came outside to grab more stuff out of the car and paused to admire the … Read more