“Pffft,” you say. “WTF’S a ‘story desk?’” Well, it’s like the news desk at a newspaper but instead of, say, covering the Man Bites Dog beat, it’s all about the seamy underbelly of storytelling and why it matters (beyond fun and profit). Story is the currency of our times. Story shapes our culture, story drives…
Every now and again, we find a way to make the newspaper gig a little more enjoyable — hence the North Bay Bohemian’s Spring Lit 2023 fiction edition. Below is my flash-fiction introduction. After all, there was only one J-school grad among us. The rest of the Press Club were English majors with exotic emphases like…
This was originally written for the March 2023 edition of Philosophy Notes, the newsletter of the Marin Philosophical Society. There’s a continuum that flows like so: data to information to knowledge to wisdom. Age, I believe, is supposed to support that trajectory. And if not age, at least time. In my case, it’s been neither. …
I’m the kind of media consumer who churns between streaming services like I was making butter. I keep a calendar with cancellation reminders; I scour the Just Watch app for the best deal on my desired film; and lately, I’ve loaded more library cards into free services like Hoopla or Kanopy than I have credit…
Grüner Veltliner — sure, it sounds like some kind of Viennese rail system — but the Austrian white wine varietal has been popular stateside for well over a decade. Check your fridge, you may already have one laying on its side, playing possum as a sauvignon blanc — a forgotten party gift handed off during the hurly-burly of…
You’d be forgiven if you thought “vexillological” had anything to do with the vexy-ness of, say, Harley Quinn. As illogical and vexing as the DC comics anti-heroine may be (quite), the term actually refers to the study of flags. Ergo, vexillologists are those who study flags. Bonus round: a vexillonaire is someone who is “a…
