Category: articles

  • Blades

    It’s amazing to me that we used to make these fans with metal blades with like a single strand of barbed wire surrounding it, as if that would protect the fingers of a small child. It’s almost as if someone got stoned up at the GE design lab and said, “You know, when I put…

  • Basic Needs

    In Carthage, Missouri, every once and awhile you’ll catch people bringing mattresses in the beds of their trucks to the drive in theater. They get frisky, but mostly just make out. If they do anything else, it’s not like the squeaking of truck suspension interrupts you while watching Pixar films with the kids. They just…

  • love of the the way he tells

    “It is the subtlest of all snares. Every poet and musician and artist; but for the grace of God, is drawn away from the love of the thing he tells – to the love of the way he tells it. ‘Til down deep in hell he cannot be interested in God at all but only…

  • Failure is an Option

    Over on NPR via the Burgetts — Failure can be devastating, but it can also make us stronger and smarter. TED speakers explore how failure clears the way for success, in our everyday work, and our innermost lives.

  • Our Deepest Fear

    Our Deepest Fear

    “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.…

  • Why My 4th Novel Failed

    Why My 4th Novel Failed

    2024 author’s note — If you’re arriving here from F.C. Schultz’s wonderful first video, you need to know a few things (1) I now run a substack that, among other things, will offer a library of free advice to writers (2) I have a massive free resources page for writers (3)  the book I started after…

  • Ninja Rolls

    Overheard in a Braum’s: “Your wife didn’t show up?” “Nah, I just slowed the Porche down.” “Opened the door and kicked her out?” “Yeah.” “She must be great at ninja rolls.” “Hers are pretty tasty.”

  • Lament is not Whining

    Lament is not Whining

    Lament is not despair. Lament is not whining. It is not a cry into the void. Lament is a cry directed at God. It is the cry of those who see the truth of the world’s deep wounds and the cost of seeking peace. It is the prayer of those who are deeply disturbed by the…

  • Baby Meters

    I know a guy who babysits one of his coworker’s infants every lunch hour. This guy with his Boston Market microwave lunch and a baby not his own in his arm. I told him he should get a baby meter. Like a parking meter, only for a baby. And you have to insert coins to…

  • NYC Standards

    You know your standards have lowered when the men’s bathroom at the Route 66 Drive-In in Carthage, Missouri is cleaner than every single toilet seat you’ve sat on in a Manhattan Starbucks.

  • Evildoers: Correcting Them and Fearing to Offend Them

    Evildoers: Correcting Them and Fearing to Offend Them

    “For all too often we wrongly shy away from our obligation to teach and admonish evildoers, and sometimes even to rebuke and correct them. We shy away either because we are unwilling to make the effort or because we hesitate to offend their dignity or because we want to avoid enmities that might impede and…