Category Archives: fiction

Virginia Woolf almost does the Super Bowl

Posted on February 3, 2014 by oddmanout215

Most years, I persuade a famous novelist to write a 500-word recap of the Super Bowl — Dostoyevski and Faulkner, among others, have donned their sportswriters’ caps to appear in this space — but this year Virginia Woolf phoned at … Continue reading →

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Beware the polar Gore-Tex… or is it cortex?

Posted on January 8, 2014 by oddmanout215

It seemed I might be able to change my socks two days in a row, but then Arctic air crept in on big bear claws and pushed the swamp back into the deep freeze. Swamp Rabbit, flipping out from cabin … Continue reading →

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The ill logic of the lower classes

Posted on December 29, 2013 by oddmanout215

It’s the Eighth Day After the Solstice, and I’m back at the shack after checking up on my old house, which stopped feeling homey after a tree fell on it last year. Some of my old neighbors are doing OK, … Continue reading →

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‘Island of Sirens’

Posted on December 7, 2013 by oddmanout215

December is a tough time to live in a swamp. The trees are bare and the clouds so low you can almost jump up and touch them. You need music to stop the highway noise. Today I put on “Island … Continue reading →

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How many male novelists does it take to make a joke?

Posted on November 6, 2013 by oddmanout215

My friend Susie, who has read some of my fiction, sent me a bunch of male-novelist jokes from The Toast, all of them in the “how many” format. Like this: Q: How many male novelists does it take to screw … Continue reading →

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Walter White says bye-bye, ‘Baby Blue’

Posted on September 30, 2013 by oddmanout215

Walter White to his long-suffering wife Skyler in their final scene together: “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.” Breaking Bad was an unusually good TV show … Continue reading →

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Stranger than Strangelove

Posted on September 22, 2013 by oddmanout215

I was back at the shack, beside myself with angst, reading to Swamp Rabbit about a catastrophe that almost happened a half-century ago: A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that … Continue reading →

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J.D. Salinger groupie tells all — again!

Posted on September 16, 2013 by oddmanout215

My friend Swamp Rabbit, an autodidact who tries to hide his deep knowledge of American literature, was surprised and appalled by a recent piece in The New York Times by the writer Joyce Maynard. It began: In the 50 years … Continue reading →

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Easter story, updated

Posted on March 31, 2013 by oddmanout215

And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? — Mark 16:3 My friend Jesus the taqueria owner was whacked on Friday by demented jerks with nail guns. It wasn’t pretty. … Continue reading →

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Cruising mean streets in the popemobile

Posted on March 23, 2013 by oddmanout215

The mainstream media love big, easy stories — natural disasters, inaugurations, papal elections. The election by the College of Cardinals of Jorge Bergoglio was a softball lobbed right over the plate, and the media knocked it out of the park. … Continue reading →

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