Reading Time: 9 minutes Classic Trek series always left room for play, and sometimes did so quite literally, with beloved characters play-acting in completely different roles for many episodes. Holodeck episodes in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager allowed crew members to play-act consciously. Q-continuum, time-travel, and mirror-universe episodes invited a range of unwilling, unintended, and naturalized […]
Storytelling
Posted inWar and Peace
The day the white pelicans came
Reading Time: 4 minutes One recent glorious morning in tranquil South Dakota, as Russia rained more death and destruction on Ukrainian cities and hamlets, I awoke to a perfect day, my wife peacefully checking her email beside me and turning to smile, and our cat trying to tunnel under the covers to a remembered warm spot. That’s what the […]
Posted inComedy
The Jesus-Analog Cat, The Boring Old Biddy, and the Unsupervised Kitchen Appliance – Chapter 3
Reading Time: 8 minutes Lola ran out of the junky room down the hallway, looking for her siblings. Primarily because there wasn’t anyone else to talk to. “Pay attention,” she snapped. “I’m back!” “What in God’s name are you talking about, Lola?” sneered Sadie. “You haven’t been wondering where I was? Wait, don’t answer that.” “I’ll answer that,” Parker […]
Posted inComedy
The Jesus-Analog Cat, The Boring Old Biddy, and the Unsupervised Kitchen Appliance – Chapter 2
Reading Time: 8 minutes The horrible little man was only a little taller than Lola herself and he carried over his head an unseasonal umbrella. Later in life, Lola would look at such a thing with a sneer and think, ‘Ugh, damn hipster,’ and vote against her own interests just to keep such a person from climbing any further […]
Posted inYour World, Your Life
The local Arizona news story that haunts my career
Reading Time: 3 minutes The news is … not great. Let’s talk about the olds. Specifically, a story about a story that I covered in my days as a young freelance writer in Arizona. Is this the Arizona that conservatives want? As we approach the 2022 election, Arizona is decidedly a bellwether state. Will it (finally) flip blue? Or […]
Posted inFiction
The truth about black cats and monsters
Reading Time: 2 minutes There’s a black stray that lives in my neighborhood. He came with the house. The previous owners abandoned him. But he had a cat door so he spent most of his time outside before they’d left anyway. It was kind of heartbreaking that I couldn’t let him in. I tried at first and he scratched […]
Posted inTrue Story
In Putin’s Ukraine, vodka drink you!
Reading Time: 3 minutes Not long after my daughter was born, my then-fiancé and I went with baby in tow for a weekend at a condo in Rocky Point, just over the Mexican border from Arizona. The border guard who checked our passports on the way home had a pretty heavy foreign accent. I wonder about his story. A […]
Posted inComedy
The Jesus-Analog Cat, The Boring Old Biddy, and the Unsupervised Kitchen Appliance – Chapter 1
Reading Time: 8 minutes ONCE THERE WERE FOUR CHILDREN whose names were Parker, Sadie, Emmett, and Lola. This story is about something that allegedly happened to them which necessitated many years of therapy. It began when they were sent away from their home “because of the war.” Of course, this was just what they were told. The children—all except […]
Posted inCulture
The stories we retell tend to come true
Reading Time: 4 minutes Stories derive power and even reality from being retold. But we can always choose to stop telling old stories and start telling new ones.
Posted inScience
Science lets us tell better stories
Reading Time: 5 minutes Ancient myths and rituals were humanity’s first, fumbling attempt at understanding the world. But now we can tell the true stories.