A Disturbing History Lesson

I began reading ‘Unbroken’ the other day, and came across a paragraph discussing America’s flirtation with eugenics in the 1930’s. In the 1930s, America was infatuated with the pseudoscience of eugenics and its promise of strengthening the human race by culling the “unfit” from the genetic pool. Along with the “feebleminded,” insane, and criminal, those…

Encouraging War Against Heroin Addiction

Below is another article I penned for Yahoo; it appeared under Yahoo Voices in January. It was written in response to a Yahoo request for commentaries on what America should focus on in 2014. It didn’t make much of an impact – I believe it totaled 14 total hits in the six months before Yahoo…

Ten Essential Fleetwood Mac Songs

I wrote this for the Yahoo Contributor Network in April 2014, on the heels of the band’s tour announcement. Fleetwood Mac was a radio staple during my high school years. I wasn’t a dedicated follower, but did enjoy most of their singles. My favorite song at the time was ‘Tusk,’ just because it was different.…

Writing Interruptus

For a brief time, I was a professional writer again. In search of a few extra bucks, I took on a gig as a Yahoo Contributor. Not a high-profile or high-paying job – $1.00 per thousand views – but it gave me a little practice, and I had some new bylines to put on a…

She Should Know Me By Now

My wife, trying to drag me out of the knuckle-dragging, hard-copy book reading era, recently bought a Kindle Fire for me. By signing up for Amazon Prime, she said, I can buy books for $2.99, $1.99, even $0.99, instead of dropping $25 at Barnes and Noble every week (Not to mention the shelf space we’ll…

Gone But Not Forgotten

I recently woke up before dawn and drove 90 minutes to see a cemetery. Not a large landmark graveyard, mind you, but an small family plot in the unincorporated town of Falls of Rough, Kentucky. An Internet acquaintance remembered seeing wooden crosses marking the burial site of family slaves, one faintly reading ‘He was a…

Of Trains

Third boxcar, midnight train Destination: Bangor, Maine Old worn out suit and shoes I don’t pay no union dues I smoke, old stogies I have found Short, but not too big around I’m a man of means, by no means King of the road – King of the Road Strange that I never noticed it…

Feeding the Inner Beast

When I get bored, I look through my Spam folder. I suspect I’m not the only one. Most of the time, Facebook is a sufficient time-waster. But after I’ve overloaded on cute puppy photos, when I’ve tired of editing my comments so as to not offend my family and younger friends, I skulk over to…

My Writer’s Block

Still working on Zero to Hero, up to Day 20 – Publish Something In A New Medium. So I took way too much time playing with Powerpoint, Photoshop and Movie Maker and came up with this. It’s basically what I do for an hour every night trying to figure out what to write about…

When Did I Get Old?

I’m old. Frankly, I never planned to admit that, because I never believed it. Not through the arthritis, not through the ever-growing list of prescription medicines I ingest, not through the new kids at work just a few years older than my grandson. What finally broke my spirit was the Internet. It wasn’t necessarily one…