I wanted to see the comet. I heard about the once-in-a-lifetime appearance of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS just after it appeared: there was a photo posted on Facebook, of the comet lined up beautifully with the lake I missed swimming in for so many months this summer, while trying to replace our ruined car. It felt like a cruel joke that I’d missed the comet as well. I have always wanted to see things. It’s never enough just to... Read more
The cold chill of Autumn blew in just as my thirties ended. On Friday, my fortieth birthday, we went downtown with Jimmy the mechanic, to see his friend the car dealer. But again, just as both other times, the car dealer wasn’t there. The assistant took us out to the lot to look around, and we saw that the ugly blue car I’d named “Sacre Bleu” in August. Jimmy looked it over again, giving it a clean bill of... Read more
It’s time for another politics update! In case you’re just joining me, I’ve been trying to write a lighthearted and snarky article about once a week, where I go over all the big stories about the federal election one by one. I cover the pro-life movement and Ohio state politics separately so I don’t lose my mind. This article is going to be a little less snarky than usual, because things are getting terrifying. Please keep referring back to... Read more
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark: As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not... Read more
On the last day of my thirties, I woke early. I got into respectable clothes instead of my horrible gardening gear, and covered my PCOS thinning hair with a hat. I practiced not stimming or talking to myself as I preened and tried to look respectable. Then Jimmy came over in his mechanic’s coveralls, to take Michael and me car shopping. He meant to drive the ill-fated Serendipity around to his place and park her behind the garage until we... Read more
There was a shirt lodged in the chimney. It wasn’t one of our shirts. It was a t-shirt, not Michael’s size, and it had obviously been used as a bird’s nest. We turned on the heat for the first time and found that the furnace kept shutting off for no apparent reason. The landlord called out his trusty handyman, a talkative Appalachian fellow missing a few teeth. He found the shirt, and dug it out, and sat on our... Read more
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark: The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them... Read more
Autumn has a smell before it has a look. When the trees are still mostly green, dried out around the edges but not in glorious color yet, you can smell the change coming on. It smells like honey when the ground is wet, and brown sugar when it’s dry. It finally rained good and hard last weekend, but now it’s bright again. The nights have been a little chilly, and the days just cool enough to make walking pleasant.... Read more
Donald Trump is completely insane. In case you haven’t guessed, this is my weekly election politics update, which I actually haven’t written in more than a week. I try to write about the pro-life movement and Ohio politics separately, and just have one snarky post about the week’s political news, but I’ve been putting this one off because I wanted to wait until after the vice presidential debate this evening, in case anything interesting happened there (it did not). Please... Read more
How do you get rid of Serendipity? I’m not asking some kind of philosophical question; I’m talking about my car. I was hoping to sell what’s left of that thirteen-year-old Nissan I so comically named Serendipity: a car with good brakes, great tires and and a shiny frame, which sometimes jerked when I hit the gas and smelled suspiciously of mildew, with a dry rotted wiring harness hidden under the heat shield and a host of junkyard parts I... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In