I’m interested in how and why our memories visit us—and in the many cues, visual or otherwise, that help us remember. Photographs are especially interesting (and obvious) memory cues: after all, in their uncompromising and authoritative retelling of the past, they are completely unlike memories, which are shaky, uncertain. Photographs exist to tell us, “No, [...]
I intended to write something (ostensibly) clever and introspective about my work life this week, but Bryan Waterman’s post about his grandmother got me to thinking.
My dearly beloved grandmother – the classic cookie-baking, big-breasted, hugging kind of grandma – died about three years ago. She was my mother’s mother, and I loved her more than [...]
The Polish Boy Scouts say: Have a great Memorial Day!
I spent the better part of last week in northern Arizona for my grandmother’s funeral. I have a batch of freaky hometown photos for TGW, but I’m having technical difficulties getting them up on the site this morning, so I’m just going to post a couple excerpts from the life sketch my father gave at [...]
I smear the grainy brown bits and blood across my fingers and gloat like a comic book hero: “Die you filthy vermin; you think you have the evolutionary advantage but you are vanquished, you are nothing, I kill you.” I cease my pinching and crushing and wave a turquoise bottle triumphantly. “Nothing like the smell of Napalm [...]