Sunday warrior
The Doppler radar looked like a corner man’s towel in the ninth round. Three slashes of red cut across Georgia and western South Carolina, each one more pronounced as they stepped south toward the...
Category: Suburban warrior
St. Francis Hospital: The real cost of having a baby
About the author: I am an award-winning investigative journalist who worked at Greenville, SC’s WYFF News 4 from 1999 to 2005. Everything you read below is objectively true. Summary: Below is a long and...
M&Ms
Nassau, Bahamas–The little girl behind me wants an M&M. I know this because she repeated what she wanted for five consecutive minutes, only taking breaks to take giant breaths that would propel her through...
Bahamas bits
I’ve now been in the Bahamas for ten days and there is no common thread that can tie the whole experience together. It’s a mess of random nightmares mixed with zombie walks through a...
Five years of wandering
I got the sense they were talking about me. I was younger then–just 31, in fact–but I was no dummy. I’d already seen some of the most impressive and disturbing things most people ever...
2010: Time to go
Well, the way I see it, it’s time for us to get moving. Near as I can tell, I have been waiting around long enough. I’ll get as old as the road as long...
Rapid Eye Reality’s 2009 superlatives
In 2009, my wife gave me another son. She gave me room to be me. She gave me encouragement like no one else could. In 2009, my oldest son looked at me in a...
Being us on Christmas
The other day as we sat beneath stockings and in the glow of a perfectly-lit North Carolina pine, my son asked, “Dad, can we celebrate Hanukkah sometime?” This is where my son’s experience is...
Otis Resolved 2010
Last year at this time, I posted a sort of peremptory list of resolutions for the coming year. The way I see it, the top of the year is full of people resolving to...
A day with my boy
I just spent ten days pretending I’m a lot younger than I am and acting generally selfish. It was, as you might expect, a damned good time (with the exception of that time it...
Fellas, I’m ready to get up and do my thing
Thank you for your e-mail. I will be away from my desk until Monday, December 14. If your inquiry relates to my family, please forward your question to my wife. If it regards my...
Six Weeks of Crazy nears its crazy end
The following isn’t so much interesting as it is an excuse for why I’ve been away so much recently. About five weeks ago, I started using the phrase “Six Weeks of Crazy” to describe...
Last kiss
Anna Lea worked in a doctor’s office and was sure the way those women screamed in pain was all put on, a desperate cry for attention from a pregnant woman. Grasping the idea of...
Part of growing up
“It’s Wolverine, Dad. X-Men,” he said when he’d turned on the TV. The look on his face let me know that this was not a show his mom would let him watch. The boy...