Eclectic Living
PrefaceThe following is advice for my 18-year-old daughter and my 15-year-old son. Not all of it is applicable to both of you. It should be noted that both of you are already following the most important principle: you are good people. In many ways, you are better adjusted human beings than I was at your... Continue Reading →
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The earliest version of this iteration of the Pledge of Allegiance (which incidentally didn’t include “the United States” or “under God”) was written in... Continue Reading →
Part I And just then the boy had a sudden spasm, as if something had bitten him in the stomach, and uttered a long, shrill wail. For moments that seemed endless he stayed in a queer, contorted position, his body racked by convulsive tremors; it was as if his frail frame were bending before the... Continue Reading →
How did everybody's ultra-conservative uncle - the one who forwards Snopes-disproven emails and thinks Sean Hannity is an unassailable authority on everything - become the President of the United States? He nakedly displays his ignorance and baseness so regularly that statements that would normally be disqualifying for the presidency have become quotidian. Witness his recent... Continue Reading →
"You don't know me - I'm a good guy," I rebutted somewhat angrily. "Yeah, I can see that by your truck," the man with the immaculate teeth said sarcastically. I had an idea years ago to start a website called WouldaCoulda. It would've been a social media website wherein people posted stories about incidents in... Continue Reading →
I recently went on a weekend golf trip to Arizona with a good group of guys. One might imagine that, in general, the demographic of guys who go on weekend golf trips would tend toward a bro-ish, self-absorbed, perpetual adolescence mindset. I hope that generalization's not true, and for our group, it wasn't. Still, I... Continue Reading →
My optimism stems largely from a belief in progress. Progress is the inevitable outcome of accumulated knowledge and enlightenment. As we understand the world better, understand ourselves better, we come to understand how to improve the world and our place in it. The Progressive approach is guided by reason and virtue. In many regards (hunger,... Continue Reading →
The Letter This is a letter that was sent to friends in our neighborhood in Longmont, Colorado (postmarked from Denver). D is brown, a 2nd generation Mexican/Spanish American (his father was born in Mexico, his mother's ancestry is Spanish, he was born in Texas). S is white, with ancestry in the United Kingdom. And their three... Continue Reading →
A Note from Poppa: Today we have brought in a very special guest to the Cottage. Watch his tremendous proposal to Make America Great Again. Or you can read the full transcript below. Not since Jonathan Swift has someone come up with such a magnificent proposal. https://youtu.be/6KKr4oYwAPs A Tremendous Proposal For building a big beautiful wall – a real... Continue Reading →
Here at the Cottage, my family and I, like most of the world, were shocked/stunned/surprised (dumbfounded, flabbergasted, stupefied, blindsided, bewildered, nutpunched?) that Donald Trump was elected president earlier this month. As what was supposed to be celebratory wine turned to bitter anodyne, a tumultuous fracas erupted in my head. My id, assholish as always, battled... Continue Reading →
Poppa's Cottage 