caught in the rat race asphalt mazes everywhere smith and jones and cheese

Wild Billy Baggins In one shot fell from the skies earning angels wings Some men pass through this world quietly, like a church mouse sneaking through a pantry. Then some arrive like a brass band falling down a flight of stairs. William “Bill” Bagdasarian belonged firmly to the second category. The government knew him as…

My Cousin Elmo says, “The Earth is neither round or flat. It’s fucked.”

“But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; Or like the snow falls in the river, A moment white–then melts for ever; Or like the borealis race, That flit ere you can point their place…” Tam o’ Shanter, Robert Burns, 1790 The press machine hummed and thrummed as I…

Since the weekend, I have been experiencing problems with my truck’s left blinker. I turn it on, and then it fails to turn off, unlike my right blinker, which works perfectly. After this morning, I know I need to repair it. Turning off Pyramid Highway and into the Walmart parking lot, I noticed a silver…

My Cousin Elmo says, “People who hate capitalism know it gives their job skills a value far below their sense of entitlement.”

As a child, I dreamed I’d grow up and dazzle the world. But time and disappointment chipped away at me until only the real stuff was left, and it wasn’t dazzling. Tired stories, a sack of regrets, and a reverence for the pieces of me that survived. All this ruination has stranded me in a…

Because I spend so much time in Virginia City, sometimes a question must be clarified, quantified, or plain ol’ explained. For instance, as I sat at the bar of my favorite watering hole, a thirty-something woman seated next to me asked, “You seeing anybody?” I swiveled on my stool and looked around, then confidently turned…

We call her Lucy, the bossy little girl of Charlie Brown fame, but not today. She works better today than I’ve seen in many previous weeks, without complaints or demands other than paper and ink. She is our printing press. And today, she thrums with literary agility. Around me flits and buzzes my only other…