Dog Ear

ne thing about writing – people can sure misunderstand what you say. Perhaps you didn’t word it correctly. Or perhaps the reader came to your piece with emotions clouding his reception. Who knows? It doesn’t matter what the reason is – just know that it happens. Recently, I wrote about a coworker playing a pretty good prank on me (HERE). It was really funny when I related it to my buddy Greg, laughing in recollection as I spooled it out. A little later, I decided to blog it up, describing it in terms of the interruption it caused to a […]

his Dog Ear comes on the end of a bit of a dilemma. Had an interesting thing happen to me (maybe today, maybe a couple of days ago, and remember these blogs are posted well off the actual dates of occurrence). Anyway, the short of it – someone flirted with me, to the point of hitting me up. I won’t say I didn’t like it. She was just nice, about my age, and we had a lot of common. Turns out we had youthful shared experiences. So next thing I know, I getting that gentle touch as she made her […]

remember the rank, horrible smell of shitty writing way back when I was in my twenties, watching Blade Runner in the theater. Here’s a movie that focuses on man’s mortality, the close proximity to death, and just how fragile life really is. And in the end, when the point is made and we’re rocking back in our seats, it’s un-made with a stupid final scene with the hero and his girl driving off, explaining how nobody was really going to die, how everything would be happy, and how tomorrow was going to be a better day. Even then, I thought […]

t’s pretty tough to keep up the blogs I do. Not only do I need to write something about writing (DOG EAR), but then I have a weekly book review. Dog Ear is generally doable – I just catch whatever is passing through my mind, examine it during a walk and write about its angles. But for book reviews, I need a book. A week. Now, I’ve read literally thousands of books in my life. I’ve got them all over the house and boxes of them in the attic and the storage vault. However, about 95% if them I don’t […]

‘m walking out of the building a few days ago, crossing the breezeway to the parking garage. Most of the yuppies are zombie-walking with their phones up in front of their eyes, living their blunt little lives with their foreshortened minds. Me, I’m taking in the sun and air, and I’ve got a handful of goodies the likes of which they couldn’t imagine. I’ll break from the description to note that there are writers out there who read nothing but the area of their speciality. You can tell it in historical novels where the source information lists pages of books. […]

’m a bit of a political/social hothead. I won’t promote any details here concerning my views any more than I have on the front page of the site. I just feel (like most people) that the world could be improved and that my way makes absolute, perfect sense (and that anyone counter to my opinions is a knucklehead). And that’s fine. Unless you are a writer. Look, it’s okay to have political views (like assholes, everyone has them). But one thing we do need to remember is that we are not only representing ourselves on social media, we’re representing our […]

rony is where you find it when you are a writer. I’m tapping-off (i.e. using my pass card) off the train and it’s coming down in buckets. Someone on the seat next to me had shown me the rain patterns on his phone – no waiting this long line of storms out so it will be a wet bike ride home. And wet it is – the roads are flooding. Around the low grates, it’s about four inches deep, coming over my pedals and churning around the chains. My glasses are soaked, I’m wet to the skin, and the winds […]

riting about real people (living people (living people who can get pissed at you and give you a sock on the nose)) is always tricky. Unless you are writing a political rag with a fiery agenda, you’ve got to have a care towards those you write about. I reflected on this today while driving home, considering how I’d blog up the TY&E railroad session I’d just run on. You see, besides writing about writing, I write about model train operations. Every session I attend, I blog. Some of the blogs are closely followed by their owners. So, the question is, […]

ne my favorite movies is The Great Waldo Pepper. It’s a movie about World War One fliers trying to eke out a living barnstorming and movie flying in the twenties. In one scene near the end, Waldo is talking with Ernst Kessler, a one-time top German ace and now a boozy three-time potbelly loser. But there is still something magical about him. He speaks of flying and the paramount moment of his life, when he fought (and downed) four American fliers. There is a line that sticks with me. “I keep track of talent.” That’s an interesting statement, short and […]

t’s the weekend of July 4th and we’re out at the beach. The wife and I are rounding off her three-mile daily walk (and, frankly, sweating our glands out through our pores). And while I’m trying to distract myself from the salty sting in my eyes, I’m noticing all the beach books cracked open. That’s cool. Everyone likes a beach book. It’s one of the icons of Me-ism, just sitting in a chair on the sands, enjoying a low-IQ kettle-boiler. In fact, many reviewers (myself included, I believe) have reviewed a fun books as a great “beach book”. Yeah, all […]