January 2000 archive

It had been a very long few weeks, filled with terrorists, murderers, and barely-thwarted mob wars. Elaine Vespen’s day-to-day routine in all of this was much the same — go in, get ignored until some detective desperately needed (and therefore yelled for) her technical skills, perform the impossible on cue, receive little or no thanks, …

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Sand had never been one of his favorite things, especially when it was wiggling its way into his sneakers through the holes he could never find when he looked for them after he dumped them out. It was so gritty, and it got into everything! Whenever his mom brought him and his sister to the …

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Evelyn Jeeters stood at the window of the rough-hewn log cabin, peering out into the dimming afternoon. Soft golden shades of late afternoon were descending over thickly grown evergreens outside. She pulled the faded muslin curtain aside and stared at a narrow dirt path leading away from the cabin. Surely Andrew would be home soon? …

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My New Year’s Resolution: No New Year’s Resolutions! For once, I’m resolving not to resolve. Perhaps it was the half-empty pint of “Chubby Hubby” in my hand that tipped me off. Maybe it was the astonishingly low number of classes I attended last semester, or maybe it was the rapidly expanding beer belly I have …

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There is a story in my family that we like to tell, that is taken out and dusted off and told and retold at every holiday gathering or get-together or reunion. It involves my mother, post-war America’s love affair with the movies and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Lion. The way I recall the story is that my …

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