Poisoning People in Apollo: All in a Day’s Work
Apollo is a small town in western Pennsylvania, part of the old coal and steel belt that surrounds Pittsburgh. The shallow Kiskiminitas River, a tributary of the Allegheny, flows through the borough. Although it is close to my hometown, I never knew much about it, except that my artist uncle once made a glass carving [...]… | more |
Ten Years on the Road, Part Two
I grew up in western Pennsylvania. There were woods nearby, and while I often played in them, their wonders—the trees and birds, the changing seasons—escaped me. I never asked why the robins flocked to the neighbor’s yard in the spring or marveled at the bushes glistening in the sun after an ice storm. I didn’t [...]… | more |
Ten Years on the Road, Part One
We’re driving in a dust storm somewhere in the Navajo Nation in Arizona. We’ve just passed “Church Rock,” and to the north in Utah is The Valley of the Gods. We can barely see the road, and the tumbleweeds are dancing on the highway, careening off the windshield and dashing madly across the desert. 660 AM [...]… | more |
panis angelicus Sometimes at night in our motel room, I put on headphones and listen to music on my computer. I subscribe to Rhapsody, which gives me access to millions of songs. I pick one and go from there. Once a piece is chosen, Rhapsody recommends others; a second song leads to a third, and so forth, [...]… | more |
I began teaching, at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, in 1969. I was twenty-three years old. Like all new employees, I had to fill out employment forms. One of them concerned my pension. I had to mark my expected retirement date. Everyone then considered sixty-five to be the normal retirement age, so I added [...]… | more |
"That Which is Full of Wonder"
There is something astonishing about rock arches, and every time we see one, we marvel that nature could produce such works of art. How can there be such a thing as Landscape Arch, the longest in the world, an impossibly thin span of 290 feet, stretching like a rainbow between its sandstone moorings and made [...]… | more |
We were in Las Vegas, a cheap stopover on our way to a month or so in southern Utah. Our hotel, South Point, is on Las Vegas Boulevard but far south of the Strip. It’s a good place to stay. The staff is friendly, and our room, which was larger than our old New York [...]… | more |
Fear and Loathing at Saint Vincent College, An Update
Last December, I wrote an essay about my alma mater, Saint Vincent College, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. In it, I describe some troubling events. Ever since the ascendancy of the current archabbot, Douglas Nowicki, in 1991, the college has moved steadily to the right, culminating in the appointment in 2006 of James Towey, formerly head of [...]… | more |
A Nation in Decline?: Part 1: A Passive/Aggressive People
We were six months on the road, from February to August, traveling in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, and Oregon. We have been to towns large and small: Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Tucson, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Yuma, Blue Diamond, Ridgecrest, Barstow, Bishop, Genoa, Carson City, Reno, [...]… | more |
A Lucky Man, Episode 4 (last one!)
VII. By the time Clyde got the letter telling him the date of the arbitration hearing, he was nearly out of money. He’d made house payments, but the rest of the bills were overdue and food was in short supply. His parents offered to lend him money, but he refused to borrow from a man [...]… | more |