I will never forget the time a monsignor from our church, favoring our simple household with a visit, stopped by and in the course of dinner, sat back, smugly, too congenially, to tell a slightly risque story. Halfway through that distinguished man’s anecdote, my father detected the story’s randy nature. He paused for a moment and asked, “Is this an off-color joke?” The monsignor looked sheepish. “I won’t hear it,” my father said. “Breaks down authority.”
By Alexander Theroux, Nov. 9, 1995 | Read full article
Far more financially successful than I am or will ever be, Paul used to be impatient with my allusive way of writing, symbolic and often too rich. He has a much more lucid, accessible style, which is arguably a prose less demanding to write (though I am certain he would deny it) and one more palatable to the common reader. Many think my work — I hope no one in my family is numbered among them — pretentious.
By Alexander Theroux, Oct. 3, 1996 | Read full article
Daniel and my mother lived in and around Las Vegas, in Oregon, in San Diego, and near Sacramento. Mom had a knack for finding office jobs with abusive bosses. She hoped that if she were nice enough, her boss would have to be nice back. One stole her paycheck; another set up a pyramid scheme; another was a physician who made her babysit a girl he’d gotten pregnant and performed an abortion on.
By Glen David Gold, May 22, 1997 | Read full article
“Your job is to get well!” my father boomed at him, as if his enthusiasm would knock the cancer out. “I’ll do the rest.”
Dad cooked for him, mowed the lawn at his home in Lakeside, and collected his mail. André urged Dad to take it easy, reminding him to take his blood-pressure medication. Father and son were a match. As André grew weaker, he moved upstairs, and they slept in the same king-size bed.
By Jangchup Phelgyal, Dec. 23, 1998 | Read full article
I’ve often thought to myself, as I race across town to make it to a church before the priest’s time in the confessional box draws to a close and I face the prospect of more time with discomfort from my festering sins and anxiety for my precariously situated soul, how funny this scurrying about must look to a non-Catholic. The idea that you’ve got to find a certain sort of man to tell your sins to….
By Matthew Lickona, Oct. 25, 2001 | Read full article
When I was a child, my mother took me to Central Park and spread a blanket for me to sit and play on, and if I strayed onto bare grass she would pick me up and place me in the center of the blanket again. The summer after I graduated from college, I went to Europe. I don’t remember if she knew then that I traveled from London to Istanbul and back by hitchhiking.
By Amy Chu, Dec. 10, 1981 | Read full article
A free pass means no more begging for money, no more piling on complaints about the world such as “My husband’s unfaithful.’’ “I’m having a terrible time at work." “I'm an alcoholic.” “I’m having an abortion.” “I got fired.” “I like to have sex with small animals.” It means refraining from giving nutritional warnings about her dietary habits, or giving her a bad time for not being a feminist, or for her disapproval of gays and lesbians.
By Patrick Daugherty, May 2, 1992 | Read full article
My brother had dressed me as a triangular cookie filled with poppyseed or prune paste. I wore a little triangle hat and a brown sandwich board. During the costume contest, all the children stood onstage: many queens, many kings, many princesses. Only one cookie. We were asked, “What’s your name? What are you today?” When it was my turn, I blanked, looked to my left, said the name of the girl next to me.
By Sue Greenberg, August 18, 1994 | Read full article
I left town in 1960 and didn’t return until 1971. We hardly communicated the entire time I was gone. Once I returned and divorced the wife they had rather liked and married one they disliked, we spent ten years living less than a mile apart with almost no contact at all. Dad retired during that time; they got a trailer in Phoenix and spent six months a year there. I looked forward to their leaving.
By Jack Hubbel, May 11, 1995 | Read full article
I will never forget the time a monsignor from our church, favoring our simple household with a visit, stopped by and in the course of dinner, sat back, smugly, too congenially, to tell a slightly risque story. Halfway through that distinguished man’s anecdote, my father detected the story’s randy nature. He paused for a moment and asked, “Is this an off-color joke?” The monsignor looked sheepish. “I won’t hear it,” my father said. “Breaks down authority.”
By Alexander Theroux, Nov. 9, 1995 | Read full article
Far more financially successful than I am or will ever be, Paul used to be impatient with my allusive way of writing, symbolic and often too rich. He has a much more lucid, accessible style, which is arguably a prose less demanding to write (though I am certain he would deny it) and one more palatable to the common reader. Many think my work — I hope no one in my family is numbered among them — pretentious.
By Alexander Theroux, Oct. 3, 1996 | Read full article
Daniel and my mother lived in and around Las Vegas, in Oregon, in San Diego, and near Sacramento. Mom had a knack for finding office jobs with abusive bosses. She hoped that if she were nice enough, her boss would have to be nice back. One stole her paycheck; another set up a pyramid scheme; another was a physician who made her babysit a girl he’d gotten pregnant and performed an abortion on.
By Glen David Gold, May 22, 1997 | Read full article
“Your job is to get well!” my father boomed at him, as if his enthusiasm would knock the cancer out. “I’ll do the rest.”
Dad cooked for him, mowed the lawn at his home in Lakeside, and collected his mail. André urged Dad to take it easy, reminding him to take his blood-pressure medication. Father and son were a match. As André grew weaker, he moved upstairs, and they slept in the same king-size bed.
By Jangchup Phelgyal, Dec. 23, 1998 | Read full article
I’ve often thought to myself, as I race across town to make it to a church before the priest’s time in the confessional box draws to a close and I face the prospect of more time with discomfort from my festering sins and anxiety for my precariously situated soul, how funny this scurrying about must look to a non-Catholic. The idea that you’ve got to find a certain sort of man to tell your sins to….
By Matthew Lickona, Oct. 25, 2001 | Read full article
When I was a child, my mother took me to Central Park and spread a blanket for me to sit and play on, and if I strayed onto bare grass she would pick me up and place me in the center of the blanket again. The summer after I graduated from college, I went to Europe. I don’t remember if she knew then that I traveled from London to Istanbul and back by hitchhiking.
By Amy Chu, Dec. 10, 1981 | Read full article
A free pass means no more begging for money, no more piling on complaints about the world such as “My husband’s unfaithful.’’ “I’m having a terrible time at work." “I'm an alcoholic.” “I’m having an abortion.” “I got fired.” “I like to have sex with small animals.” It means refraining from giving nutritional warnings about her dietary habits, or giving her a bad time for not being a feminist, or for her disapproval of gays and lesbians.
By Patrick Daugherty, May 2, 1992 | Read full article
My brother had dressed me as a triangular cookie filled with poppyseed or prune paste. I wore a little triangle hat and a brown sandwich board. During the costume contest, all the children stood onstage: many queens, many kings, many princesses. Only one cookie. We were asked, “What’s your name? What are you today?” When it was my turn, I blanked, looked to my left, said the name of the girl next to me.
By Sue Greenberg, August 18, 1994 | Read full article
I left town in 1960 and didn’t return until 1971. We hardly communicated the entire time I was gone. Once I returned and divorced the wife they had rather liked and married one they disliked, we spent ten years living less than a mile apart with almost no contact at all. Dad retired during that time; they got a trailer in Phoenix and spent six months a year there. I looked forward to their leaving.
By Jack Hubbel, May 11, 1995 | Read full article
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