Columns

Porkpie Hat – One Sunny Day

One sunny day, perhaps it is mid-July, a boy sits down on the soft, warm grass beneath a pear tree and opens up a book. Perhaps it is a picture book, a book of poetry, an almanac, or instruction manual. Above him, there are small songbirds flitting from branch to branch. The sun is warm… Read more »

The Mindful Bard – Roddy Doyle, The Deportees

Book: Roddy Doyle, The Deportees Publication date: 2007 Publisher: Viking, New York A young Nigerian man is invited to dinner at the boisterous Dublin home of a female acquaintance. Her brother makes a snide comment about the dearth of culinary options in Nigeria and is immediately descended upon by the women of the house, mad… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid

On September 16, I became the 241st member of a very exclusive club with a membership of only 241 members (although by September 18 the number will likely be 242). There won’t be any regular monthly meetings or an annual meeting ever. There’ll be no minutes, no executive, no elections. There aren’t even any membership… Read more »

Porkpie Hat – A Hidden Knife

I am driving my father to the airport on a rainy Monday morning. He’s flying out to attend the funeral of an old childhood friend. There is this girl on the shoulder of the highway, maybe 15 years old with a green mohawk and a leather bomber jacket, hitchhiking, holding a cardboard sign that says… Read more »