Bender pondered the wine in his hand. “A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.” “That’s only three.” Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.” I share this passage from… Read More ›
wine
Fruits of Labor
I know a winemaker. Not many people get to say that. One of the benefits of living in California, I suppose. But even more than knowing him, I know his story. He didn’t always make wine. And that’s the thought… Read More ›
Murder, She Intervened
We went to wine country a few weeks back and ended up spending most of our evenings in a magical highway-side town with more five-star restaurants per capita than any other place on earth (stats not verified). With stroller in… Read More ›
When the Going Gets Stuff
The movers will arrive in exactly one week. We will cram our stuff into cardboard boxes labeled stuff. We will pack our bags and collapse the bugaboo, and probably attach a few “free” post-it notes to the lamps and fans… Read More ›
Some Like it Hot
I rushed out of the office in the East Bay, changed into jeans in the parking lot between the two open doors to my incredibly hip rental car, and then finally pointed my compass southwest towards SFO. The bags under… Read More ›
Write Like a Maniac
“Write like a maniac,” I said. With power, there would be no excuses. I dug my rear into 36K and prepared my writing space. My words bounced off the seat backs in front of us. My new best friends, in… Read More ›
O Grity Seen
Sometimes, if you look hard enough at a word, you can find hidden meaning between and among its letters. Don’t just break down the prefix, root, or suffix, or try to dig into its linguistic history. Instead, stare at the… Read More ›
Cheeseburger in Tuscany
The sun burnt my skin, sour candy formed one of those strange bump things on my tongue, and even, just once or twice, a rogue glass-too-many hurt my head the next morning. Too much of a good thing can be,… Read More ›
Miss Quito Was Here
We swatted in a midnight haze at a mosquito with a familiar craze. Could it be the same one that punished us for my excessive limoncello session the eve before our wedding? Same place, more or less,… Read More ›
Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads
The moments with our parents, and their siblings, become even more important the older we get. It’s not so much the wisdom they impart, or the stories they share, it’s the time we get to spend together knowing the ticks… Read More ›
eternal Domnation 