The year was 1967. I remember it vividly, which is impressive, because I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night. (It was either leftover meatloaf or something pretending not to be leftover meatloaf.)…

I’m lying in the bunk of my Peterbilt listening to music loud enough to violate at least three noise ordinances. It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving, and I’m stuck, parked on an exit ramp outside Sturgis,…

I graduated from high school in 1975, just as America was winding down its involvement in Vietnam. Flat feet, chronic ear infections, and being an only son might’ve kept me from service anyway—but by the…

An historical story of fiction November 7th, 1887 –Glenwood Springs, Colorado The bed sheet was damp with sweat when he woke from another fitful sleep. It had been a long night of coughing, and now,…

What Cancer Taught Me About Perspective For the past few years, I’ve known about something growing on my kidney. It was spotted during a CT scan for another issue. I had hoped it would just…

A couple of weeks ago, a group of us made a pilgrimage north to Kohler, Wisconsin — the hallowed ground of American golf — to play their legendary courses. This is the home of the…

As you get older, your memory starts to fade. I can’t tell you what I had for dinner last night, but the memories of growing up in Chebanse, Illinois, still play in my mind as…

Musk’s staggering fortune pales in comparison historically. For the record, and contrary to what my children believe, I am not a billionaire, and unless I win the lottery, I never will be. I thought…

Hopefully, writing this memo will keep my mind off the cold. I’m freezing my ass off—no other way to put it. If something happens to me, this will be my record. Heading east with a…

The Phantom’s Epilogue Editor’s Preface In April 1920, it was reported that a reclusive tenant of Apartment 1203 at the Chatsworth Apartments in Manhattan, New York, had died in his bed. “The Chatsworth,” as it…