Think back to the last time you heard a Really Loud Noise. Was the Really Loud Noise a truck backfiring? How far is the nearest road? Could a sound have traveled that distance? Is it the Fourth of July? New Year’s Eve? Could the Really Loud Noise have been a
Sixteen year-old Paula is unhappy at her rehabilitation facility in California. She was happier last year before ending up in treatment. She was happy when she was running away from home, getting into cars with strange adult men, staying away for days at a time, binge drinking, and using IV
“I’ve changed, Mom. I’m not going to smoke pot any more or play video games either. I just need some money until I can get a job.” Tommy pauses as if for dramatic effect then plays the card that has always worked in the past: “I can’t believe you don’t
“It’s all your fault, Mom. You are the reason I don’t have any friends. All of the other kids drive nice cars, but you gave me this lousy car to drive. The other kids make fun of me. If you would just leave me alone, everything would be OK.” “But,
I’ve never asked Dennis and Joanie for money. But I could if I had to. If I couldn’t make a mortgage payment, I’d ask them for a couple thousand to tide me over and they’d say, “You’re sure you don’t need more?” That’s how close we are. That’s the kind
One of my running buddies, Ron, is snarky, curmudgeonly, sarcastic, and grumpy. On a good day. Ron has a bitter view of the world and agrees with Snoopy, Charles Schultz’s philosopher beagle, who said, “I love humanity; it’s the people I can’t stand.” Ron looks for the darker motivations of
The other evening, my older son sliced open the side of his finger. We took a pleasant drive over to the Emergency Room at ten o’clock and by five the next morning, he was sewn up as good as new. The doctor was thoughtful and competent–it turned out our kids
Javier’s and Alejandro’s parents could have been in the same Lamaze class. Born days apart but in the same hospital in 1987, the lives of the children had followed almost identical courses: learning differences and attentional issues that turned into trouble in school, evaluations that turned up no psychopathology, just
Saw an old acquaintance this morning. My buddies and I were doing our usual 6:00 am run down to Matheson Hammock, chatting about nothing, telling the same jokes we’ve been regaling one another with for the past several decades. After running around the lagoon–the “pee pool” for those of us
Until recently–on an evolutionary time scale–pretty much everyone was starving. Always. Until the last century, there was no refrigeration. There was no transportation either. You want an orange in the winter? Bit of a problem, that. No idea can travel faster than the fastest horse. No produce moves very far
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