"I Dream About You Baby" by Lester Afflick
Region: New York
Being alive, I have learned, means bearing a certain responsibility to the dead. I didn't know Lester Afflick well; I saw him occasionally at parties in the East Village in the 90s. Then suddenly Lester died, in 2000. Sinc... more
Views: 466"Les pommes clochards" by Christian Garaud
Region: New York
Possibly I just don't understand French well enough to appreciate these poems. For example, I don't know what the title means, really. The bum apples? In any case, the book's subject is largely domestic interiority (in oth... more
Views: 503The Real Difference between Romney and Obama
Region: New York
The second debate made clear the true distinction between Mitt and Barack: Romney has five sons, Obama has two daughters. When you have sons, you kick them around a little bit, and send them forth into the world to kick ev... more
Views: 687Mitt Romney's Five-Point Plan: Revealed at Last!
Region: New York
If you watched the presidential debates, you remember Mitt Romney speaking incessantly about his five-point plan for economic recovery, but never revealing what it was. Now that the election is over, the details of R... more
Views: 618The Liquid Asphalt Distribution Association
Region: New York
Outside the Albany Airport, my wife and I stopped at the Desmond Hotel to use the bathroom. Soon I stumbled upon a meeting of the Liquid Asphalt Distribution Association, in the Shaker Room. The meeting, it seemed, w... more
Views: 489"Of Mistresses, Tigresses and Other Conquests" by Giacomo Casanova
Region: Ohio
I must say, I didn't notice any tigresses. And "conquests" seems the wrong word. In fact, Casanova was not a casanova. (That's my pull quote.) He was more a victim than a conqueror -- helplessly in love with... nuns.... more
Views: 565"S.S. San Pedro" by James Gould Cozzens
Region: New York
This was the end of the American Era of three-named writers: William Dean Howells, Edward Arlington Robinson, et al. (The greatest of those three-namers was Edna St. Vincent Millay.) This brief, precise nove... more
Views: 604A Haiku and a Limerick on "Binders Full of Women"
Region: New York
Lying on Mitt's desk: six binders full of women, all gathering dust. Mitt Romney loves figs and persimmon, & luxury pools built for swimmin', But what he loves best, Much more than the r... more
Views: 821Miss Richfield 1981 in Woodstock
Region: New York
Miss Richfield 1981 is a drag queen, a star of Provincetown in the summer, whose strength is the acidulous off-the-cuff interview with audience members. ("And what do you do for work?" "I'm in food services." "Oh, a profes... more
Views: 640The Problem with Paul Ryan
Region: Wyoming
Paul Ryan has the eyes of a cold-blooded killer. He's a good liar, but not a gifted liar like his boss, Mitt. (America likes a gleeful con man. It gives them hope.) Ryan lies, but with a hangdog look, as if his consc... more
Views: 645
Member Since: December 2006
Location: New York
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# of Articles: 246
Website: www.softskull.com
Sparrow avoids refined sugar and National Geographic magazine, but he enjoys all jokes, including:
Tourist: Excuse me, but do you have a pumpkin patch?
Farmer: Why, do you have a leaky pumpkin?
His latest book is America: A Prophecy -- The Sparrow Reader (www.softskull.com).
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