Amusing Myself to Death

I’m a sucker for transformation movies, but not the right sort. The hard-fought back-from-homelessness Lifetime movie based on a true story ought to inspire me and doesn’t. But give me characters who find themselves in the body of their high school selves, who cross television sets to relocate in a fifties sitcom, who see a [...]

Another Slice

Yesterday afternoon, I noted that I’d never seen the shorts my son was wearing. “That’s funny,” he replied, “you said exactly the same thing when I wore them last time.” My heart executed a panicked flip as I tried to remember—seeing them and/or noting them—but absolutely nothing came. In a few moments I’d decided he [...]

Haiku

For a while I kept a list of titles on a scrap of paper in my satchel—“The Invisible Landscape,” “Famous on Radio,” “My Secret Affection for Hats,” and “On Not Writing.” Few become anything more than ghostly plans, imaginary gray pages. Without a personal agent—I picture Burgess Meredith—to follow me around writing down every thought, [...]

I Hate Blogs…

but I’m stuck with the word… It is an uneditable on this page–along with the arrangement of text, the fonts available, the categories for imput, the range of colors possible, and the background. Other than that, this page is entirely my own. A friend said recently that anyone could direct a play on a great [...]

If I Could Choose a Religion…

…I’d be a movie Buddhist. I fantasize walking in snow barefoot with unhurried steps and a quizzical smile on my lips. I dream of nodding benignly at people who insinuate I’m stupid. A movie Buddhist can answer in articleless aphorisms and somehow fill everyone with unanswerable wisdom. I’d like to be ego-free to the point [...]

The most cutting question…

A college friend e-mailed, “Where did you lose your sense of humor?” I was working on a blog entry, and I stopped to read over what I’d written—a page of nearly autistic hand-wringing over matters that might, only might, deserve a shrug. Where IS my sense of humor? And how is it that I haven’t [...]