We had so many adventures in America but it is good to be home. Continue reading →
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A long time ago, I had a girlfriend and I used to sing to her. Continue reading →
I met Mrs Clown at the airport. You’ll never guess what happened next. Continue reading →
I was looking for a picture of a freshly inked tattoo. I knew it was there somewhere… Continue reading →
Mrs Clown thought I needed cheering up so she sent me an ad for a show with naked dancers Continue reading →
I had twenty quid, a St Christopher and a change of clothes. I didn’t look back. Continue reading →
Making choices was never this hard before. Continue reading →
Not every philosopher was wrong about everything but most were wrong about most things. Continue reading →
Score one point for things you’ve done that most people haven’t. Continue reading →
The first thing they say is “Whatever you do, do not Google for information about your tumour.” Continue reading →
“If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to destroy every fucking grammar school in England.” Continue reading →
Did people in the old days experience new paintings the way we experience new technology? Continue reading →
The End-of-Life Handbook recommends using ritual to create meaning. Continue reading →
Portland is a long way from home. Continue reading →
Lots of snow in New York. Let’s go to California. Continue reading →
I got invited to an interview for a job in America. Mrs Clown said “Just go see what they have to say”. Continue reading →
Imagine you were in terrible pain and you were dying. How would you choose to die? Continue reading →
I haven’t told my story in a while. I’ll start with some symptoms from the old days. Continue reading →
“Life, if well lived, is long enough.” Continue reading →
What would life have been like if Ken and Bill had headed down to those desolate islands? Continue reading →
The Ragged Clown finds his home at last. Continue reading →
Chapter three of my memoirs. Schooldays. Continue reading →
Mr Gooden was terrifying and a tyrant and he altered the course of my life more than anyone else. Continue reading →
I’ve always thought of automats as lonely, melancholy places. Continue reading →
“How about you think about it overnight and let me know tomorrow?” Continue reading →
At least she could get some enjoyment out of being alone. Continue reading →
My story pops back into my memory sometimes in those twilight moments between waking and sleeping. Continue reading →
Inside every old person is a young person who doesn’t really understand that he’s old now. Continue reading →
Diamond nights and ruby lights high in the sky. Continue reading →
Did your teachers leave them kids alone? Mine didn’t. Continue reading →
Roger Ebert has written a powerful, meandering essay about shame. He inspired me to add my own. Continue reading →
New Entry training in the Navy was the hardest thing I have ever done. Continue reading →
Past. Now. Future. Success. Riches. Continue reading →
I’m planning to draw one of Renoir’s dances every decade. Continue reading →
I’ve had an idea that answers the question “What are dreams for?” floating around in my head Continue reading →
Sitting in those pews transports me back through my memories. Continue reading →
It cost me an E string and the skin off the top of my ring finger but I am done. Making music is hard. Continue reading →
It’s so funny to be hearing you after all this time. Continue reading →
Because it’s ALL THE TIME, I’ve come to think of it as the taste of cancer. Continue reading →
In 2004, more preschoolers than law enforcement officers were killed by firearms Continue reading →
Folks on the left often say that fear of immigration is just a thinly disguised appeal to racism. I disagree. Continue reading →
We went to see a new oncologist yesterday. Continue reading →
I opened the book and, on the very first page, was the program that changed my life. Continue reading →
I discovered a world that I only saw dimly before Continue reading →
A kiss is still a kiss. Continue reading →
The only time I ever drew with charcoal. Continue reading →
Nan was less than two years away from her century. She was born before the First World War. Continue reading →
My tea’s gone cold, I’m wondering why I got out of bed at all. Continue reading →
One thousand years later, beer is still excellent and the song is still fantastic. Continue reading →
I love buying books for people who will get pleasure from them Continue reading →
Crossing the line is an important milestone in a young sailor’s life. Continue reading →
Thinking about the happiness of everyone affected by a decision is the best place to start. Continue reading →
The purpose of a flute is to make beautiful music. Who should own them? Continue reading →
But the one subject that they really need to teach more of is rhetoric. Continue reading →
The Ragged Clown tries his hand at poetry. Continue reading →
Everything I know I have learned from a book or figured out for myself. I wish I had someone to learn with. Continue reading →
Turning, drilling, forging, casting, milling, hardening, tempering, annealing and, finally, welding. Continue reading →
When we snuck into Marten’s Grove to go skinny dipping, it was the first time I saw so many girls my own age in the nude. Continue reading →
The opening chords – Dun dun daaaaa – still give me chills 30 years later. Continue reading →
We enjoyed our 24 years in America but it’s good to be home. Continue reading →
John Rawls got it wrong. I deserve the rewards of my hard work. Continue reading →
I’m four years into a degree in the humanities. What have I learned so far? Continue reading →
If Vermeer had an iPad he might’ve drawn it like this. Continue reading →
When finger painting was all the rage. Continue reading →
Said Judas to Mary, “O what will you do with your ointment so rich and so rare?” Continue reading →
I read The Quiet American when I was still entirely in love with the romance of South East Asia. Continue reading →
Our party was on the front page of every national newspaper. Continue reading →
Who made it big? Was it George? Or Andrew? Continue reading →
I started a new job with a brand-new startup. An old life is ending as a new life begins. Continue reading →
A terminal cancer diagnosis sucks. Does it help to know long you have left? Continue reading →
The Golden Treasury of English Verse and a harmonica were my only mementos of civilization. Continue reading →
I had just turned 21 when I joined the nuclear submarine HMS Revenge. Continue reading →
Lots of people don’t know how to talk to someone with cancer. A few tips might help. Continue reading →
What was it like to have so much hatred for someone she does not even know? Continue reading →
You either got faith or you got unbelief and there ain’t no neutral ground. Continue reading →
90% of science fiction is crap. 90% of everything is crap. Continue reading →
What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears. Continue reading →
