One Piece

1. A black bear staggered past our porch as we practiced tai chi. I wondered if I was the only person mildly alarmed at the enormous shadow cast on the yard. David continued with his slow and deliberate movements. I kept losing my focus as I listened to the chuffing beast as mist rose from his hirsute primordial mask. Over the next few days in the Poconos, I would see black bears wandering around the rented cabins of summer homes. As long as I didn’t make eye contact, they seemed like the typical New Englander: cold, pre-occupied, head and eyes focused on the ground, steaming along toward whatever task they had assigned themselves to be done immediately. The next day on the way back from the local bar, David parked the car along the road to pick flowers. A giant behemoth lumbered across the dirt road. Once again, I appeared to be the only person to take note of her. I noted that I was referring to the bear with a female pronoun. Apparently I decided that this one was female and the pre...

Top 10 List of 100% fake-ass imaginary scandals and crapstorms constructed entirely by Fox News and GOP handlers that were picked up by mainstream press to waste 6 years of time with sheer lies. 1. Obama's birth certificate (it's real and he has both kinds) 2. Solyndra (profitable renewable energy company that paid its loan back) 3. Cash for Clunkers (extremely successful, minimal glitches, fixed quickly) 4. Fast and Furious: bogus bogus bogus. 5. IRS targeting Conservative Groups (nope, in fact liberal groups targeted) 6. ACORN corruption (nope, zero, zilch, nada) 7. EBOLA is going to kills us all!! (and by everyone I mean one guy) 8. ISIS is going to behead us all! Damn you Obama! (Bye, Felicia!) 9. Obama is going to take away your guns (he should but, sadly, he's not) 10. Benghazi!! Honorable mentions (sorry, you didn't make the cut. Try again next news cycle): Obamacare Death Panels, Michelle Obama is force feeding your kids vegetables, Obama hates white people (via...

OIFIX - optimum fixed income fund OIIEX - that’s the optimum international fund OILGX - large cap growth pool OILVX - large cap value OISGX - Optimum small midcap growth OISVX -small mid-cap value I wrote down the acronyms as the voice on the phone went through the different options, the premium level of management this fund has and how they will do the work for you. I was listening to someone whose title was as a financial advisor and wealth manager. This person was now my wealth manager. I listened to her run down the mutual funds bundle I had bought into that offered quick-reacting, flexible market watching and advising from some unseen Wall Street overseer. I had bought my way into the club of the advised and wealthy. I listened to her and then observed myself  asking questions with detached amusement. I guess I found it funny because I’m not wealthy. Like most Americans, I’m just in rehearsal to be wealthy. I’ve been playing this part for years. My Dad was a stock broker and h...

We crouched over a steel table top while looking at our Indian entrees. My date was describing his graduated thesis. I jabbed at my curry lentil goop as my mind wandered. It’s called the next logical step. I’m sorry...what? Human beings are engineered to expect more. After his years of research and interviews, he found that jobs with clear, logical steps of promotion have a much higher rate of happiness than jobs with undefined standards, even if the latter category is of a high-paying profession. Apparently doctors in hospitals have terrible job satisfaction because once they become a doctor there is no clear progression to being head of a hospital. You can remain a doctor forever. Conversely, dentists go through numerous levels until they own their own office. Dentists are happier than doctors. But there is a profession that pays a lot less that but has a very high satisfaction rate: professional waiters. This isn’t the part-timer student waiters and artists. We’re talking about the ...

Hey! Do you have a lighter? I picked up my pace as I saw two men move toward me with their hands in their jackets. Something wasn’t right. I switched into defensive mode. Hey, do you have a lighter? No, I’m sorry. Stupid nigger! I continued walking back home from the University of New Mexico library. The two figures -white men- increased their speed to keep up with me. I caught the sneer of one of them and the smirk of the other from my side view. I could hear their breaths flush with each other as looked at their fists jammed into their pockets. They were waiting for my reaction. The other one laughed as they tailed me down the road. Instead of turning down a side street toward my house, I took a detour along the main road and bright street lights. I sized them up. If it was just one, I could probably take him down. But there were two of them. And their hands...what was in their pockets? Maybe one of them was the son of a policeman or security guard nearby? Who would believe me vs. th...

Mother Squire spat in my Dad’s face. I imagined it was hot, red, tobacco-laced saliva filled with bile and disappointment. My father spat back at her. It was their first and last meeting. Mother Squire was my great grandmother and the matriarchal anchor to my family’s name. We only knew her name as Mother Squire, like the Queen Mother or Mother Russia. She was in her late 90s by the time she passed away a shriveled, bitter pit. I never met her, but I feel her in my bones. I can deduce certain things about Mother Squire from the bits and pieces I have gathered over the year, as well as a few pictures. As a young woman, Mother Squire was beautiful and striking. When I was a child, I saw a portrait of her sturdy, proud frame fitted with an elegant day dress. Mother Squire had numerous physical advantages. She was strong without seeming hulking. She held a shrewd look in her eyes without coming across as craven. Her hair was straight and falling to her shoulders. She was beautiful, and by ...

Dear American Democratic Party, Hi. How are you doing? Wasn’t that last episode of “The Daily Show” amazing? Anyway, now that we’ve gotten the small talk out of the way we need to chat for a moment. Or rather I need to talk as young, educated, progressive, socially-conscious voter. And you need to listen. First, I’m writing to express my condolences and offer comfort in your hour of need. Second, I also wish to give some of my own personal insight into what’s been going on in America from my viewpoint. And finally, I have gathered the thoughts of others in this letter for your meditative contemplation at what went wrong. We want you to have a seat. This is an intervention. Six years ago you ask for the votes of progressives, liberals, women, people of color, college students, gays, urban residents. After 2008, when you got all those votes from a quilt-patch coalition that voted for the promise of a new America, you appeared to become immediately scared of the people who didn’t vote for...

1. NYMF: New Link Project Deadline: Nov. 4th website: http://nymf.org/get-involved/submit-show/ The largest annual musical theatre event in the nation is now accepting submissions for the 2015 Next Link Project! Are you a musical theatre writer? Have you written a show that you'd like to produce in New York? Submit your show today to the New York Musical Theatre Festival’s Next Link Project! The Next Link Project is NYMF’s primary writer service program. It empowers emerging musical theater writing teams by providing entrepreneurial training, career networking opportunities, dramaturgical support, and other services, culminating in a subsidized production in the Festival. The Next Link Project is open to any writer – produced or unproduced, with or without agency representation. Next Link Project participants receive the following benefits: -A $5,000 subsidy towards their production at NYMF 2015 -Additional savings in production fees, and discounted technical and marketing support ...