Hey ,One of the Homeric tales in my family, retold at gatherings with my brothers, is called The Epiphany on the Big Dipper. Here is that tale…From the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, my family made an annual visit to Geauga Lake, an amusement park in O...

Hey ,The past two weeks have been as busy as possible without some tragedy befalling, but we were very near tragedy. We fell for a phishing scam. My friends, it’s not fun.My wife took the call and fell under the spell of the man on the phone. She bel...

Hey ,I was in Brooklyn, New York the other day and walked my kid’s dog to the bodega to get a sandwich. If you’re not familiar, a bodega is a corner convenience store/delicatessen crammed into the smallest space imaginable. They offer one of everythi...

Hey ,I’m writing you from Brooklyn, New York, where I’m visiting my kid. Things are strange here compared to the suburbs of Lansing, but the basics still work fine. Smile at someone’s dog as they walk by and you get a smile back, either from the dog...

Hey ,A new book is making the rounds of popularity in the circles where I hang out (Twitter and Substack) as writer after writer proclaims the book’s awesomeness. It’s Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, and I’m never going to read it.It’s not that I t...

Hey ,I try to plan my months, weeks, and days. Every morning, I pick out stuff to get done, and mostly I make progress, chipping away at my novels, humor, and essays. Then a tick walks across my face at three o’clock in the morning and my world quick...

Hey ,Last week, we saw a movie (Hey, Viktor!) at the local film festival and it’s a hoot. It’s about a child actor who has hit rock bottom in adulthood, acting in porn, alcoholic, and about to lose his family.It’s a dark comedy and the strong sense o...

Hey ,This past week, I bought myself an Atari “Gamestation Pro.” It has all the old Atari 2600 games, including classics from the arcades, such as Asteroids. It’s a lot of fun and was pretty close to a no-brainer for me, as I bought an open-box at a...

Hey ,It’s spring break for most schools here in Lansing, so it’s quiet at the office and quiet in the hood. A lot of people I know have traveled to Florida. Good for them. May they find fun in the sun, and enjoy a good book on the beach.Reading on th...

Hey ,On the evening of the most recent Picayune, exactly two weeks ago, I was in my basement exercising and threw out my back. It was a pulled muscle and I felt the fibers tear as the pain exploded and sent me to my knees.Luckily, I was near one of t...