The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

October 14th, 2022I’m on a one night layover in Prison Town, USA. No, I’m not staying in a 6 x 8 concrete studio, courtesy of the great State of California. I am a less than satisfied guest of the Super 8 Motel, in Susanville, California. It ain’t all that super but we’ll leave the details …

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The exhale was palpable, as if the very earth beneath America’s feet had physically billowed. A massive sweeping sigh of relief as the news broke. Does it make me a bad American that I had to find out from my friend Eden in Toronto? High noon. I’d just returned home from the local coffee joint …

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A loose continuation of the post Incidental Notes From the Road – link here. “I dropped south to New Harmony, Indiana, twelve miles downstream from Grayville, Illinois where I’d spent that first grim night.”From Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, by William Least Heat-Moon. October 12, 2021I’m standing in New Harmony, in front of the …

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I declared my Independence last Monday. That is, I resigned from the Democratic Party and registered as an Independent. For years, usually after another Dem disappointment, the idea of leaving the party would cross my mind, but it was a combination of my own laziness and the reality that, as an Independent, I wouldn’t be …

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There’s a scene in an episode of the drama/comedy, The Bear, in which Sydney, the young sous chef, knocks on the papered over glass door of the restaurant that she and her partner and crew have been remodeling – just a simple makeover, really. She’s spent the day bouncing around Chicago, visiting various restaurants, sampling …

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This a repost of a piece written by Martin Fredericks IV, on his site, IV Words. In his piece, Martin wonders about the deafening silence following a Supreme Court decision that essentially paves the way for an American monarchy or autocracy. Two-hundred and forty-eight years ago today The Declaration of Independence was birthed, rejecting the …

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It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the six right wingnuts on the Supreme Court would pave an autobahn towards autocracy, closing out the SCOTUS session and in effect, closing out the scattered remains of democracy. The timing was both ironic and convenient. Ironic in that SCOTUS issued its decision shit canning the whole …

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Continued from An American Legacy Story Part I: Willie Rickwood (baseball) Field, Birmingham, Alabama. June 20, 2024.Baseball has been played at Rickwood since 1910, making it America’s oldest active baseball park. A baseball game will be played at Rickwood today. For over a century, thousands of baseball games have been played at Rickwood; Major League …

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Banner photo: I shot this photo before a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, on the day after Willie Mays passed away. June 18, 2024. My wife and I were sitting, lower box, along the third baseline in Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Stadium. The buzz started sometime …

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There I was, on November 8th of 2016, standing in line at the polling place, minding my own business when my conscience tapped me on the shoulder, “Dude, you aren’t going to vote for Hillary, are you?”“Why not?” I asked. “Better than Trump.”“No shit. Hemorrhoids are better than Trump. Dog shit is better than Trump.”“So …

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