Houston and New York and Budapest

Houston and New York and Budapest

 

I once had a friend named Jules Dunay, and Jules was gay,

and I was a little in love with Jules Dunay.

The World Through The Hole in a Hanging Sock

The World Through the Hole in a Hanging Sock

 

UNITED STATESIAN LAUNDRY CULTURE

 

Texas, 1996, a rural location

My dad stared at our laundry line.  “We used to do that.”

The Meaning of Hair in My Life

For years, I did not think hairdos very important.  My mother was always after me: “A little brushing would help,” she’d say.

A Landscape Where There Are No Toilets

“Jimmy!”  I shout into the phone, “I’m looking out the window at my front lawn at an honest-to-God human turd!

Turning 40 at a Tupperware Party

It is strange to be thirty-nine years old and afraid to attend a Tupperware party.

Texas Sesquicentennial

Texas Sesquicentennial

 

“Time to go, girls!” says Maria, the supervisory auditor, pushing back her chair, sticking out a leg, and checking her hose for runs.  “This is important government business!”

Writers Take Heart from Gogol!

Writers Take Heart from Gogol!

My English professor Anthony Hilfer, in the midst of teaching J.D. Salinger’s works, asked our class, “Can any of you think of any good stories that are about happy people?”  He paused only long enough for us to blink.