Legend has it Ernest Hemingway was asked to write his autobiography in six words. Ever the king of brevity, he penned, “For Sale: baby shoes, never used”. On the surface, these six words make for a catchy tale, beneath the surface though, they display a sadness that Hemingway was unable to fully express. Being bi-polar…

“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit,” Ernest Hemingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934. “I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.” Good advice for anyone – even those not given to writing. This is part two of three submissions I wrote for a Hemingway contest, sponsored by…

This very short story is one of three written as an attempt to win an Ernest Hemingway contest put on by Harry’s Bar and American Grill, in Century City, California. Part of the rules included using the restaurants name in the story somehow.  I never submitted any of the stories as I believe them to be more in the…

Mom had jus’ passed away and there was a lot to do in the way of taking care of her remains and her personal effects, including her entire household. I was already exhausted and I found the ordeal of dealing with my siblings emotional dysfunction even more taxing. So after all was done, I retreated…

As a Route Operator for CitiLift, the Regional Transportation Commission’s para-transit system, I spent six to eight hours on the area roadways. This length of time caused me, like many who drove for CitiLift, to find restrooms where ever they were available. For me, one of those places was at the American Red Cross building…

One of the most difficult assignments is the writing of a “Notice of Death.” And what makes this one even harder is it’s being written nearly a decade to late. Five years ago, while working for the Sparks Tribune, I started to write this article, but it was tabled for a current and active news…

It was towards the middle of my 7th grade year when I was asked to leave Margaret Keating School because of my bad behavior. So my folks enrolled me in classes at St. Joseph’s Catholic School. I knew I was in trouble the moment Dad greeted Sister Angela, the school’s Mother Superior, as they hugged each other, …

After leaving radio broadcasting for what I thought was for good, I accepted a job as a Security Officer with the Reno Hilton. It turned out to be a job fraught with both personal and professional pitfalls. One personal pitfall I encountered was the verbal abuse of co-workers, whose self-confidence appeared to be lacking in…

Upon learning that actor Sylvester Stallone had been inducted into the boxing hall of fame, I had to laugh. Doesn’t the sporting world understand that “Rocky Balboa,” is simply a character in a series of films? Yes, I’ve heard all the rhetoric that Stallone has done much for the sport of boxing, but that’s like saying…

It was long weekend, meaning three days off from the rigors of continuous study. Michael Gorsline and I were invited to go spend some time at the Kelly Recreation Area north of San Antonio. It was Tech-Sergeant Frank Joseph who had offered to take us out to the lake and he was also bringing a…