I’M THE TYPE OF PERSON WHO TALKS BIG ABOUT WANTING TO SEE A GHOST, BUT IF THE TRUTH BE TOLD, were I to actually, undeniably run into a ghost—eyeball-to-ghostly eyeball—I’d probably drop dead of a heart attack right there on the spot. I guess it’s a good thing, then, that I didn’t run into any […]

I WOULD BE LYING IF I SAID THAT the idea of camel and ostrich races out in the desert wasn’t my number one reason for attending the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival. Plus, it has only been since living in California that I have become acquainted with the wonder that is the date. So […]

“I’m going down to the cemetery ’cause the world is all wrong/Down there with the spooks, to hear ‘em sing my sorrow song.” — Cemetery Blues, Bessie Smith LABOR DAY WEEKEND, I HAD THE GREAT PLEASURE OF VISITING NEW ORLEANS for the first time in a good 15 years. The inferno-like heat of the dwindling […]

IF I HAD TO SUM UP THE ORIGINAL RENAISSANCE PLEASURE FAIRE IN ONE WORD, it would be: Cleavage. Lots of it. Precariously pushed up to chins, painfully pushed out to unnatural distances, covered with glitter and tightly holding onto shot glasses and dollar bills. Cleavage was king (queen?) at this place. And people were loving […]