Stanton California Post-COVID Lucha Libre Blues
byStanton. Orange County. Ill lit streets. Even Katella, the main drag. The parking lot of an industrial park. There’s a church. A mortuary. And an MMA gym that also trains…
Sports
The Abode of the Damned
byExperienced parents know that following your child into the abyss of youth sports is not for the faint of heart. The most challenging leg of my child-rearing odyssey has been…
January 19th, 2025
byThe Detroit Lions lost a divisional playoff game last night. It wasn’t an occasion for grief. I woke up today and my wife said I still smelled like booze, even…
Adley in Seattle
bySweat trickles down my back as we sizzle in the Seattle sun, a rare 85-degree scorcher for this city on the sea. A train whistle blasts just beyond the left-field…
One Woman Swimming
byMy twelve-year-old daughter started synchronized swimming last year in the pool down the street. It was easy for her to go back and forth by herself. Sometimes I would walk…
The Wilson Basketball
byThe light from the television illuminated the living room like fireflies in the night sky. I set the timer on the microwave and darted away to take a peak at…
Two-Minute Warning
byI experienced my first heartbreak when I was nine years old. It wasn’t the passing of a relative, or any type of ill-fated puppy love. Rather, it was during the…
Charlie Hustle
byMy first memory of Pete Rose was watching him play on my family’s 13” black and white TV in our living room in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was probably 1967. He…
Muscle Memory, Addiction, and the Allure of the Lonely Blacktop
byGio was in town for what he kept calling my “bachelor party,” and what I continuously revised to a “friend’s weekend.” I was thirty-nine, engaged for the second time, and…
Down and Out in Tampa Bay
byThe Song Let me tell you something. You heard those violins and you heard the promise of a generation. You looked up. From your phone or your knitting project or…