If we didn’t have our noble institutions of higher learning, we would most assuredly need more asylums…

After hours of obsessing, I still didn’t know what to do about my website. I was lying…

I pondered my options. I thought about a letter writing campaign denouncing censorship and demanding a public…

Another week of institutionalized stupidity. The whole situation has been aggravated by my having to spend hours…

From time to time, incoming freshmen ask me if I have any advice to help them make their transition to an independent life.

Here are some basic ideas to keep in mind during the first few years away from home.

1. Don’t do anything tonight you don’t want to see on Facebook. There is no way to look classy  with your head hanging over a toilet while you barf.
2. Read a lot, study and work hard.  The greatest trip you can ever imagine begins with a book.
3. No amount of drugs or alcohol will make anyone better looking. So it’s a pretty good idea not to go to bed with anyone you don’t want to wake up with. The shock and horror will only be greater after the booze wears off.
4. Stay the hell away from Ecstasy or any other drug that makes you love everyone. Not everyone deserves your love and the real thing is a hell of a lot better than that artificial rot. And, if you are one of the lucky ones that finds a person with the courage to love, take it as a blessing.

There were those who just couldn’t keep up. There was this one fat kid from the neighborhood…

Pretty soon, all of our friends were coming out to the bridge, even Billy, the one with the most common sense. He even drove his Mustang out on the service road and parked it along the side of the tracks. Things didn’t always go well. We had our share of mishaps. One day Harold and Billy were throwing rocks off the bridge to see who could throw the highest. Now, these weren’t small rocks; these were the big, thick ones that formed the railroad bed. Harold, who had the best arm, threw one so high into the air that we lost sight of it. I was in the water and Billy tossed a rock down to me so I could try to skip it. I caught it with my left hand and the rock left a deep cut in one of my fingers. A second later, my foot got stuck in the mud; I pulled it out and lost my shoe. So, I was shoeless and bleeding.

II. The bridge was about one hundred feet long and was wide enough for two trains to…

The Bridge For Billy, Shelly and Harold (where every you guys are) Stephen King’s short story “The…

Clinton, Illinois is best known for a lake where scores of people from Central Illinois escape the…

This has been a tough year. I’ve already been to four funerals thus far and I’m still…

Although the Cubs had taken the Division Title in 2003 and their  pitching staff had an average…