POSTED // Jul 20,2011 - Ira Glass is not my favorite radio personality, but I was interested in what he had to say about narrative technique and how particular qualities of broadcast media frame a story.

POSTED // Jul 13,2011 - Rarely in life has he found himself spearheading a trend, movement, craze or faction. Even in the realm of fashion (his wife will roll her eyes when she reads this), John Rasmuson has been mostly acquiescent.

POSTED // Jun 29,2011 - Dale Elrod and I sit in Diva’s Cupcakes drinking coffee. An eavesdropper would be surprised by the subject of our earnest conversation. We talk about irrigation for an hour ...

POSTED // Jun 22,2011 - Let’s begin with a question. What is the most pervasive and least-recognized addiction in America? Here are some hints: It is not gasoline, sexting, meth or Red Bull.

POSTED // Jun 8,2011 - I was once a writer of gobbledygook—a purveyor of pretentious, polysyllabic, ponderous, purple prose. I kept a thesaurus next to my typewriter. Thus, what I wrote was not merely “wordy” but “characterized by prolixity.”

POSTED // May 11,2011 - One of my favorite Saturday Night Live sketches was called “Women’s Problems.” Staged as a television talk show, it featured Dan Aykroyd as the moderator of a panel of sleazy men as they held forth on so-called women’s problems ...

POSTED // May 4,2011 - Hearken, all ye denizens of Earth—both saved and unsaved—the time is nigh. Nay, it is here. All true believers shall be Raptured into heaven ...

POSTED // Apr 27,2011 - This is a story about a Martian verb that has found a place in the English lexicon. For me, the story begins a long time ago ...

POSTED // Apr 6,2011 - Glenn Beck has never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like, so imagine his delight on March 22 unveiling a new “terrorist plot” ...

POSTED // Mar 16,2011 - Peter, Paul & Mary performed in Salt Lake City in late 1962 or early ’63, my senior year at Highland High School ...