On Hunting and Metaphor

  IN SEASON I need bullets, he said, only one left in the chamber, and headed toward the house when by chance I spotted it in the back field, near the woods that drop down to Rush Run, the creek like a vein through our farm, and shouted to him, though a shadow...

Men Are Hilarious

My 97 year old father-in-law has always said, “One boy is one boy but two boys are half a boy.”  He doubtless developed this theory because he had two sons 18 months apart.  After five years of that fiasco, he and his wife must have...

Do The Right Thing Even If You Look Like An Idiot

Have you ever tried to do what you were pretty sure was the right thing only to have it explode?  Even have two other seemingly sane and intelligent people tell you yes, you should do it before you went ahead and did that thing that exploded? So here’s the...

“Make It Mean Something”

The sky and air felt charged this week when I walked Hannah and Maggie, the chocolate Labs.  The moon was already up while the sun hung low and cool in a fading denim sky.  Too early for twilight!  The scent of crushed leaves was strong as the dogs hunted in the dry...

On Zusak, Gadhafi and Surprise

An unexpected ludicrous moment, a twist into tragedy, a flash of tenderness:  surprise by a character is a crucial element of a riveting story.  Speaking yesterday at the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, Marcus  Zusak discussed this as well as...