Prose

Two old men. “How are you, Bob?” “Good to see you. Not too bad. You?” “Can’t complain. Trying to keep the blood flowing.” “Yeah. Been pretty cold. Hard to get out.” “Cold enough. Good to be on this side of the sod.” “Be seeing you.” “Take it easy.” “Until then.” Two old men. They raise…

You don’t want him. If he came back you would tell him to go away. All your complaints. All your schemes. All your proclamations are nothing. His truth is marching on. If he came back you would call him foul names for telling you the truth. You would hate him as you did then, revile…

I got a few questions. I hear a lot about artificial intelligence. I don’t capitalize the first letter of either word, because I have a few questions. I don’t capitalize words I’m not sure about and one of the reasons I’m not sure is a lot of people think those two words are really very…

The last time I saw my grandfather smile, really smile, he stood at the rail in a dance hall and an old woman came up to him and asked, “Jack, would you like to dance?” He hung his cane on the rail and took her hand as she took his and they waltzed out onto…

Attention Customers We Cannot Be Responsible As you sit in your car in the parking lot you see it, a sign posted over the shopping cart corral. There is fine print to be sure. There is always fine print, but the message is clear. You’re on your own. You’re welcome to come and shop. They…

I found my hammer. This may not come as big news to you, but to me yes. I lost it years ago, because I forgot where I put it. That’s the only reason, but you imagine all sorts of things. I left it on top of a rafter or a joist. I left it on…

I would like to tell a story, Your Honor, about the time I served jury duty in Van Nuys, California and saved a man’s life. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God. He came up on felony charges. Violation of a restraining order, hit…

I am a dog. I make no bones about it. There’s nothing I can do about it. I came into this world a dog and that’s what I am going to stay. I’m a big dog. There’s nothing I can do about that either. Little dogs tend to snap and snarl and bark because they’re…

You know how it is when you clean out a filing cabinet or a drawer. You find what you knew you had all along and forgot. You give yourself credit for remembering. That’s what I found today, a piece of paper about an airplane. They called it the Pietenpol. Back in the 1930s you could…

I love old books. I have one in front of me now. It lies open on my desk. One of twenty volumes bound in watered silk entitled Author’s Digest, The World’s Great Stories In Brief, Prepared By A Staff Of Literary Experts, With The Assistance Of Many Living Novelists, printed in 1908 on thick vellum…