Category Archives: Essay

A Social Experiment: Controversy as Promotional Tool

I recently read a comic essay in Newsweek magazine in which the writer lambasted Crocs shoes (those odd, brightly colored plastic things) and the people who wear them. He got actual death threats for his efforts. This last week there has been a great, albeit artificial, political flap due to one politician using a phrase [...]

The Long and Winding Closet

I am surprised when people I meet don’t know I’m gay. How could they not figure that out? I am also surprised when I meet someone and they do know. How can they tell? It’s a little schizophrenic, I guess (no disrespect intended to any of my schizophrenic readers) but both are true. I have [...]

Fabulous, Thank You, How Are You?

Many years ago I got into the habit of answering the ubiquitous question, “How are you?” by saying, “Dandy, how are you?” Most people just smiled and said they were fine. I was working in a law office in Los Angeles at this time and there was one lawyer who worked there, a junior partner, [...]

Pothos Cuttings – a Metric for Masculinity

“You are now officially an old lady,” he said to me when he saw the pothos cuttings in a vase on my kitchen windowsill. That was five or six years ago. I told him the pothos needed trimming and it was a waste to just throw the cuttings out. He shook his head sadly. They [...]

I Ruined Her Whole Experience

I was at the gym the other day, getting a good shvits in the steam room after my workout. It was billowing and very hot, so I put my little towel over my head, sat back and enjoyed myself. After a few moments of that I heard someone complaining, full voiced, which is odd. Usually, [...]

Three Auditions

When I still lived in Northern California, fresh out of college and settling into life before my planned foray into a life in theatre, I took a vacation trip to Ahsland Oregon to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for a week. Once there for few days, I decided I wanted to be part of something [...]

Smokey Tea And Stinky Cheese

My mother liked extreme foods. The tea she liked was smoked. I have no idea what the brand or type was, although I have a vague memory that it was something British. It came loose in a tin and my mother would put well over a teaspoon of it in a tea bell, put it [...]

All the Money You Save

Many years ago Toyota had an ad campaign with the catchy slogan, “What Will You Do with All the Money You Save?” The thinking was, I assume, the consumer had $20,000 in their checking account allotted especially for the purpose of buying a car. When they bought the Toyota and it only cost $18,000, they [...]

Nigel Does Utah

It didn’t take the movie The Italian Job for me start coveting a Mini Cooper. The first time I saw one, I decided it would be my very next car. I was then driving a black 1988 Nissan Sentra, a wholly practical, dependable, sensible, staid box of a car. I loved my Sentra, who I [...]

I Am a College Graduate

It would probably come as no surprise to anyone who knew me that I’m a college graduate; I’m fairly well spoken, fairly well read, use multi-syllabic words and have a subtle air of pretension that precedes me into any room. It may come as a surprise, however, to know that not once in the thirty [...]