Vignettes

As 50,000 soldiers, some of whom are friends of mine, wait for the end of their time in Iraq to come to an end and, most likely, their new misadventure in Afghanistan to begin, my colleagues and my family discuss the “end of the war”.… Read full post »

Disclaimer: There are two parts to this review, the first is a brief, thematic review without spoilers and the second is more in-depth and contains spoilers (and a lot of useless extra crap).

Spoilerless Review

A noble (or maybe underhanded) attempt at selling a film… Read full post »

A small Cessna, or maybe something even smaller, buzzes back and forth over the high school campus.  I don’t hear it at first because of the fan that I have running, trying to keep my students from melting in the humidity that pours into every corner of the… Read full post »

I corner her in a corner cafe - a copper-colored amalgamation of notions that fell carelessly out of mouths and came together, like ribs, for her.

Her coffee pulls itself to her lips, effortless and completely independent of her. 

“We do not speak Spanish in America,” she… Read full post »

Abner Lee Snow, if I imagine him, must have possessed the t-bone shaped facial structure that typifies both myself, his great-great-grandson, and my grandmother, his granddaughter – that is, the cheeks forming the top of the 'T' and the chin and teeth forming the base. My… Read full post »

Today I felt compelled to reach out to my students before they depart for Spring Break.  This is the letter that I will give to them, for better or worse, as they leave my classroom tomorrow:

 April 1^st, 2010 

To my students before Spring Break: … Read full post »

  As the Republican Party and its emotionally challenged younger brother, the Tea Party, rally to fight “Obamacare” with lawsuits, I have remained on the sidelines, watching the red-faced zeal with which these political ape-men beat upon podiums and hang flags from balconie… Read full post »

 I spent the last week on sick leave from my job as an English teacher.

I have no more sick time remaining – but that’s ok.  Here, without a union, we donate our leave time to one another, finagle our annual or personal leave and, most of the time, we just/… Read full post »

I cannot offer any of you much tonight in the way of revelation (do I ever?) but then again I don't believe in revelation – at least insofar as what is presented as being True.

I have been on a hiatus from blogging that was entirely coincidental and so I apologize… Read full post »

February 12, 2010

8:43 am: wake up alone again, my hair looks like crap – worked the closing at Starbucks last night.  I really need to fix my hair.

9:23 am: my hair is finally right – it's doing that floppy forehead thing, a few strands in my eyes for effect/… Read full post »

Teacher workday.  Testing new camera for Yearbook.  I am not a professional photographer, obviously.  Enjoy?

 … Read full post »

If you enjoy crudely drawn cartoons that may or may not be funny social commentary then you may or may not enjoy this.  You may not. 

All artwork and stuff herein belongs to me, typed text belongs to Photobucket, but everything else is me - including the hair.

 … Read full post »

The plantation still sits there on the banks of the river.  It’s still farmed, farmed by some who are descendants of its former slaves.  The buildings, some of them at least, are still solid and can withstand the occasional hurricane that maintains enough strength to blow across the w/… Read full post »

At the beginning of the decade Starbucks seemed like a company bound for Wal-Martian greatness.  Many felt that Starbucks was going to be the corporate behemoth of the future: pleasant, faux-bohemian AND made of a gold/coffee bean alloy.

However, the company has taken some hard hits in re… Read full post »

In my brief blogging career I have often referenced what it is like to be a non-believer in the evangelical stronghold that is the American South.  My remarks have always been anecdotal and are humbly offered to those who are not familiar with the part of this nation. 

In a… Read full post »

I asked my students to imagine a world in which they were never born.  Their friends and their families, me or the administration – how would we be different?

My students say they can’t answer that because they were born. 

They can’t answer because it might br… Read full post »

“Good people,” my grandfather says. 

It’s all I can do to twirl the receipt around in my hands.  I’m tired.  I’m sweaty.  I smell like the inside of a U-Haul.  I’m at ground zero of Nowhere, North Carolina in the sweltering, cricket-infused… Read full post »

Why would my parents, completely sane and respectable people, name their firstborn son after a war criminal – worse than that, a genocidal fanatical maniac?  My parents have never killed, they are not vicious people – they never even believed in corporal punishment.  They are ge/… Read full post »

Two of my students are pregnant.  An acquaintance of mine just had a miscarriage.  A relative has recently attempted suicide – twice.  I just found out that one of my ancestors may have been murdered.

Life.  Death. Hmm.

I never really believed in Santa Claus.

&nb… Read full post »

My wife is terrified of the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In movies, when it comes time for the first shot of Washington, one of several things can happen:

• A stunning sunset view of the Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima, flag rising)
• The Capitol rotunda at night with all/
… Read full post »

1^st period – I finish explaining what pacifism is.  To gauge their actual attentiveness, I ask several students what the word means.

 I don’t care Mr. J., pacifists are of the devil. 

Traitors. 

Pussies. 

Scared people. 

They can’t be Christians.&n… Read full post »

 I wondered if the president had shrunk.  He usually seems so tall, almost absurdly lanky.  A thin tree that bobbles around, whispering, whistling and amusing.  No, of course he hadn’t shrunk.

            ACUs (Army Comb/… Read full post »

As an atheist…no, wait, I don’t prefer that word.  It leads to nowhere.  As a freethinker, better.  My colleague took those words back almost as quickly as she’d said them.

“I’ll pray for you…oh, I’m sorry, I know you don’t believ… Read full post »