A catalog of the stuff in my apartment
I went to the beach only a couple times this summer. During my most recent day out on the sand, there was no umbrella for me to cower under, so to protect my pasty skin from harmful UV rays, I slathered on extra sunscreen, kept my shirt on, and used my towel as a blanket […]
As of this month, I have maintained this blog about my belongings for 5 years. I am fairly pleased with how things are going, though the AI-generated feedback from WordPress, the platform I use to create this thing, seems less enthusiastic. Before publishing a post, WordPress now lets you click a button so that a […]
Because I sometimes forget to put on sunscreen before I leave the house, I carry a spare bottle in my bag for application on the go. But that usually means I have to smear the cream on my face without the benefit of a mirror and can’t see what a poor job of blending I’ve […]
At a Pride party I attended last month, somebody I had just met asked me if I was gay. “Can’t you tell?” I said. “Sometimes with nerds it’s hard to tell,” he said. I live for that kind of remark because I can’t wait to repeat it. My idea of the perfect material for a […]
I recently read Lord of the Flies for the first time. I know, I know: You read it in ninth grade. Well, excuse me, but I attended an evangelical Christian school. We’re lucky I know my multiplication tables. I found the novel distressing, though I suppose I do agree with author William Golding’s pessimistic assessment […]
Since March, I’ve taken three regional trips—to Martha’s Vineyard; Rockport, Mass.; and Provincetown—and two trips to farther-afield destinations: El Salvador and Valdez, Alaska. Needless to say, this flitting around has left me concerned about my finances, my disrupted sleep schedule, and my chances of contracting the fungal skin infection evidently poised to ruin my “Hot […]
Not long ago, I was working on the Boston Globe’s Sunday crossword puzzle while riding the T. A young woman seated next to me kept looking over my shoulder. Eventually, a spot opened up next to her friend on the other side of the car, and the looky-loo took her prying eyes over there. I’m […]
I’ve devised a new three-part daily wellness program to stay reasonably active and reasonably fit. I’ve named the three parts as follows: the Morning Louie, the Midday Meander, and the Evening Constitutional. The last two are just walks. I take a 20-minute stroll around lunchtime and a 40-minute amble in the evening, for a daily […]
A supposedly good book that I do not especially like is My Dog Tulip, J.R. Ackerley’s well-regarded 1956 memoir about his beloved German shepherd. If you ask me, way too many pages have to do with trying to get the dog laid. I did, however, find this part moving: … what strained and anxious lives […]
Over the last decade, a bunch of states, including three of the four where I have been a resident—my home state of Arkansas as well as Illinois and Massachusetts—have enacted laws requiring public schools to teach students cursive. (The fourth Zac-affiliated state is New York, which has no such requirement.) In the case of Arkansas, […]
Indirect Objects 