50 words, 210 people

210 of 210 : Craig

2006-10-24T14:00:00.000-04:00

Good heart, good mind, good spirit. Fat—too fat—body, but working on it. I think he’s in a good place in his life, more centered, more content. It’s funny—there are a lot more years behind him than in front, yet what he feels most is . . . hopeful. Everything’s possible.

Th-th-th-that's all, folks. I've reached the end of this lovely, enjoyable, communal writing experiment. I'm going to keep the blog up for a while, but I hope you'll check out my new blog, Notes from the Dreamtime. We'll be live at 2 p.m. today. Stop by and give me your feedback!

209 of 210 : Smith

2006-10-23T00:24:00.000-04:00

My great-grandfather (Smith was his given name) was repairing the roof of his chicken coop at age 88 when he fell. He broke his hip, was hospitalized, and within two months developed renal failure and died. I never got to meet him, but he remains the backbone of our family.

208 of 210 : Jane #2

2006-10-22T00:35:00.000-04:00

I can’t tell you how much I admire this woman. Thoroughly independent, even solitary, living life completely on her own terms. Creative, vigorous, with a fine mind and an open heart. I hope I can be half as hardy and accomplished at her age (here's hoping I last that long!).

207 of 210 : Jane #1

2006-10-21T08:52:00.000-04:00

Her dogs are always LOUD. She is always LOUD. A large, brash, fiercely intelligent woman, and one of the founders of Ms., she’s also a JP and an incredibly active presence in the town. But much as I admired and liked her, she wasn’t someone you could just relax with.

206 of 210 : Ed

2006-10-20T07:42:00.000-04:00

A born-and-bred old Middletowner who sold honey from his own hives and impossibly cheap seasoned firewood from his groves. Though his was one of the town’s founding families, I think he was on the outs with them: when he talked about stepping in some manure, he substituted the family name.

205 of 210 : Matthew Perry

2006-10-19T08:44:00.000-04:00

Never met him. Or the host of other actors who persistently find their way into my dreams. I’m not dreaming about Matthew Perry; he just does a cameo appearance as, say, an obnoxious salesman. Last month it was Kevin Kline as a theater usher, and Oprah as a golf pro.

203 and 204 of 210 : Emily and Danna

2006-10-18T00:39:00.000-04:00

When Emily’s niece died, the pastor ended the memorial service by inviting her nonreligious relatives to stand and give their lives to Jesus; when they didn’t, he berated them: “I hope you remember this as the day you rejected Christ, because you’ll never see Vickie again.”

When Danna’s great-grandmother died, one of granny’s sons was in prison, but was allowed to attend the funeral in shackles. When the family Pentecostals started wailing hysterically, he seized the opportunity and fled, shackles and all. Few noticed, however, since at that moment an obese grieving relative collapsed on the coffin and toppled it.

202 of 210 : Thelonious

2006-10-17T00:44:00.000-04:00

One Step Down was legendary. Long and narrow, with perpetual clouds of cigarette smoke and the sweetest jazz you've ever heard. One night I ended up there and was invited to sit and drink with a couple of Thelonious Monk's old bandmembers, who shared stories of his talent and temper.

201 of 210 : Mr. Otter

2006-10-16T00:21:00.000-04:00

Darryl and Janet’s home backs onto a fairly new manmade lake, which made the appearance this afternoon of “Mr. Otter,” as they called him, all the more surprising. An actual otter, lying on his back, sunning himself unconcernedly on the bank. Now they’re on Otter Watch, cameras at the ready.

A cousin, perhaps?

200 of 210 : Louise

2006-10-15T13:58:00.000-04:00

Junior high dances were absolute torture. When people wasn’t dancing, they were sucking face with their dates. Ick. So I took Louise, a plain, painfully shy little thing who thought I’d given her the world by asking her out. We were each other’s bulwarks against the horrors of adolescent society.

199 of 210 : Isaac

2006-10-14T12:12:00.000-04:00

Everyone else called him Mr. Asimov, but she called him Uncle Isaac. A close friend of her family, I heard stories about their dinners together, laughing, her father arguing genially with him about how far one could bend science fact in the making of fiction. He always remembered her birthday.

198 of 210 : Another Shirley

2006-10-13T14:38:00.000-04:00

The village was full of generally friendly people. But the proprietor of the other general store in town was sour, taciturn, cold. I made her my special little project. It took two months of near-daily visits, but I finally got her to smile and even be the tiniest bit chatty.

197 of 210 : Mr. Bunting

2006-10-12T10:45:00.000-04:00

As assistant headmaster he could have had me arrested for breaking and entering, or suspended or expelled, but he seemed to understand my need to read my Permanent File that he kept in his office. Mainly I wanted to get the results of the IQ test they had recently administered.

196 of 210 : The Jehovah’s Witnesses

2006-10-11T12:35:00.000-04:00

Dressed in Sunday finery, clutching Bibles and copies of The Watchtower and Awake!, they appear. “Oh, no,” I say, “we have our own faith, and we’re very careful not to stray from it!” “Not straying from the faith” is a prime JW tenet, so it flusters them greatly. Most effective.

[By the way, Tony’s wife and dog appeared today—a little ahead of schedule, but we’re having a cool spell, so maybe it confused her. The dog is a little larger, and she’s stopped dying her hair (it’s mousy brown and gray now), but her voice can still echo for blocks.]

195 of 210 : Earl

2006-10-10T00:49:00.000-04:00

My great-uncle loved practical jokes. At his mother’s 92nd birthday, he gave her a diamond ring to replace her old wedding band, but in the presentation speech, he said it was because she had never actually been married. I can still remember her shock, her laughter, and her great joy.

194 of 210 : Robert

2006-10-09T08:52:00.000-04:00

The organization's parking lot attendant / maintenance worker. Stoic, upright, a man of few words. He died so suddenly, riddled with an unusual cancer. Exposure to chemical weapons in the Gulf War? Secret military testing on black soldiers? Heartbreakingly, a definite possibility. And easier to accept than an inexplicable natural death.

193 of 210 : Kiki

2006-10-08T12:28:00.000-04:00

Our junior high school “bad girl.” I watched her change from a sweet (but slightly dim) girl in elementary school to a biker chick who distributed sexual favors like candy from a piñata, despite a pleasant and stable home life. She’s now a quite respectable mother with . . . a teenage daughter.

192 of 210 : Doris

2006-10-07T12:06:00.000-04:00

For a few horrible years I managed fast food restaurants. My trainer at one point was Doris, a ball-breaker whose unpleasant demeanor was matched only by her over-the-top lust for some of her female workers. She said she wanted a t-shirt from Wendy’s, whose motto at the time was “Hot-n-Juicy!”

(Not Doris, but a reasonable facsimile of her.)

191 of 210 : J.C.

2006-10-06T00:04:00.000-04:00

Beanpole tall, he was the big cheese at the telemarketing firm. Well, almost the big cheese. There was a main supervisor-cum-stick-in-the-mud, but J.C. ruled the roost with his boundless charm, and his workers were extraordinarily loyal. Unethical as the day is long, as was he, but great to party with.

190 of 210 : Melissa #2

2006-10-05T08:16:00.000-04:00

Little slip of a thing. Buzz cut, nearly bald. Tight-fitting black clothes, much of it leather, with prominent silver accoutrements. A marvelous brain: funny, with a cutting wit and a keen intelligence. My first words to her: “Hey, didn’t I see you in V for Vendetta”? Cue her wonderful laugh. . . .

189 of 210 : Dana

2006-10-04T17:45:00.000-04:00

After the workshop, I asked the instructor if he’d like to see some manatees. We went to a lagoon where they frequently gather, and I flopped onto the dock and reached into the water. Dana was amazed to see one large fellow roll over so I could pat his belly.

188 of 210 : Jody

2006-10-03T23:56:00.000-04:00

She’s a proud papa-to-be: her partner, Tracey, will be attempting to conceive at her next ovulation. Names already chosen. Because the hospitals charge such outrageous amounts for artificial inseminations, they’re going to do it the old-fashioned way: Jody will use a turkey baster, and Tracey will stand on her head.

187 of 210 : The Rabbi

2006-10-02T02:04:00.000-04:00

He may have looked like Harvey Fierstein, but it was a lovely Kol Nidre service. The only thing that threw me was when he wished me a “Gut Yontiff.” Adam kindly translated it into Hebrew for me: yontiff is Yiddish for yom tov, a good day—that is, a holiday.

(Harvey, not Rabbi Natkin)

186 of 210 : Martha

2006-10-01T00:34:00.000-04:00

An Internet pal of mine is a prodigious knitter. She knitted lovely scarves, in “Princess pink,” for everyone to wear to Princess’s memorial, and even sent one to those of us who couldn’t attend. After she saw The Last Knit, she decided that knitting indoors might be a good idea.

185 of 210 : John

2006-09-30T00:58:00.000-04:00

His father was the school’s headmaster. Low-key geek one minute, entitled rich kid the next. Somehow we became co-editors of the newspaper, though I did most of the work—albeit at his very comfortable home, listening to early Elton John on their professional sound system, and drinking his father’s booze.

184 of 210 : Margot

2006-09-29T19:39:00.000-04:00

She was the most unlikely Elvira. Granted, we didn’t have a lot to choose from for our production of Blithe Spirit (I played Charles), but she was tall and brassy, not lithe or lilting. But she was perfect. She had that ascerbic wit, that bite, and she dazzled the audience.

183 of 210 : Susan #2

2006-09-28T14:26:00.000-04:00

One great benefit of Mom’s insurance plan: doctors who make house calls! Susan is the visiting doctor’s nurse, and she’s a ray of sunshine. She hugs everyone hello and goodbye, jokes happily with patients and family, keeps the doctor on task, and generally makes one feel good to be alive.

182 of 210 : Steve

2006-09-27T12:49:00.000-04:00

He’s a reporter for People, so he’s always passing along the most delicious celebrity gossip that can’t be printed in the magazine, and getting his photo taken with famous people. Friends always tease him that he’s not really black, since he looks decidedly Latino and “sounds white” on the phone.

181 of 210 : Neil

2006-09-26T07:39:00.003-04:00

An optician by day, an artist by night. His friends are, howyousay, eclectic. At a park they found a homeless man sleeping in the picnic shelter, so they left him some wine, a bottle of apricot beer, and an oatmeal cookie, then took pictures of him, wrapped up and unconcious.

180 of 210 : Jesse

2006-09-25T09:17:00.000-04:00

In ten years, he’ll be running a cult. In his post as education director for his social group, he’s mandated that all members participate in a “ritual of rededication” to the organization, and leads a spiritual exploration project in which you “risk your very existence” if you miss a deadline.

179 of 210 : Felix

2006-09-24T09:23:00.000-04:00

How long does it take to lose an accent? Our other neighbor, a congenial fellow with a terribly sweet wife (with crippling RA), has the thickest New Yawk accent I’ve ever heard outside of the Bronx. I was shocked to learn that he’s lived in Florida for, like, 30 years.

178 of 210 : Yet Another Bill

2006-09-23T16:36:00.000-04:00

Our next-door neighbor is an elderly gent with a decided lisp. Give him a second and he’ll tell you all about his innumerable ailments and his countless doctors’ appointments each week. I try to be friendly, but there are only so many times you can hear about his gall bladder.

177 of 210 : Tracy

2006-09-22T00:30:00.000-04:00

My eldest niece is developmentally disabled, though not profoundly. To everyone’s surprise, she met a good man, and they married; seems there’s a shoe for every foot after all. Alas, the sole fell off after a few years, and they divorced, but she’s doing remarkably well now on her own.

176 of 210 : Uncle Bill

2006-09-21T12:23:00.000-04:00

Extremely tall and lanky, with the most unfortunate buckteeth. He never married, never dated, never did anything even remotely social except drive a Checker Cab all his life. Lived the attic of his sister’s home, had the same nervous laugh she did. Makes you wonder about their life as children.

175 of 210 : Elisa

2006-09-20T00:47:00.000-04:00

She was so shy that she rarely spoke above a whisper in her lilting Caribbean accent. But then she’d start to sing. Oh. My. God. Easily the most silken, beautiful, utterly natural voice I’ve ever heard. The music she made was as simple and graceful as water dancing over stones.

174 of 210 : Edna

2006-09-19T08:24:00.000-04:00

She was the corpse in the next room at my aunt’s funeral. Edna’s relatives didn’t wear lugubrious expressions or speak in hushed, reverent tones like ours did. They had a par-tay! I thought the laughter and joy was terrific. But getting their photos taken with the body? Not so much.

173 of 210 : Chris #1

2006-09-18T00:20:00.000-04:00

Mom’s sister’s son, Julie’s brother. Probably the best person in the family, all things considered: funny, smart, genuine, strong, hardworking, caring, committed. Good-looking, too. He’s taken just enough risks to have really lived, while staying unfailingly responsible. Does he have some hidden dark side? With Chris, I think it’s WYSIWYG.

172 of 210 : Toni

2006-09-17T20:15:00.000-04:00

Dewey and Margaret had three children: Ernest, Peggy, and Thelma. Ernest had me; Thelma had Toni. Toni married twice, but had no offspring. I too am childless. With us, our grandparents’ lineage dies. Considering the dysfunction on this side of the family, I’m not entirely sure it’s a bad thing.

171 of 210 : Aunt Thelma

2006-09-16T20:13:00.000-04:00

I remember her mainly in two different contexts: smoking and telling stories with her sister Peggy (she of the foghorn voice and brassy demeanor) at family gatherings, and late in life, blind and crippled from diabetes, shut off from the world, her television and old blind dog her only companions.

170 of 210 : Walt and Ken

2006-09-15T01:04:00.000-04:00

Princess’s memorial—or rather, a fabulous celebration of her life, a riot of excess, held on her birthday—was last weekend, and Walt just uploaded all the photos he shot. My favorite shot was of Walt’s partner, Ken, holding their bird, Pobrecito, whom they brought on the trip with them.

("He's not invisible, dammit!"
was the weekend's continual refrain)

169 of 210 : Tanya

2006-09-14T00:50:00.000-04:00

We have wonderful conversations while she cuts my hair. We talk about movies—I rave about V for Vendetta, she adores Jackass. Sports? I discuss tennis, she waxes poetic about NASCAR. Music? I love Yo Yo Ma, she’s crazy about Garth Brooks. We just shake our heads at one another.

168 of 210 : Sharon

2006-09-13T20:21:00.000-04:00

We had a conversation one day about race relations in America. I argued that money was a stronger motivator than racism; she tried to explain why I was wrong, but it didn’t really sink in. The government’s response to Katrina in New Orleans just proves what a fool I was.

167 of 210 : Hunter

2006-09-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

He lives on an estate (a hundred acres or so) in Virginia; founded a global investmant firm; wrote a bunch of books; and serves on fifteen non-profit boards of directors. No room for schadenfreude, though: he’s a genuinely kind and generous man with a passion for ethics, of all things.

166 of 210 : J&K

2006-09-11T13:09:00.000-04:00

When I met them early in their relationship, I never thought they’d last. They were too dissimilar. But their wedding—my first as an officiant—was glorious, and they grew together quite happily, but became rather homogeneous and insular in the process. “Becoming one” is not always a good thing.

165 of 210 : Becca #1

2006-09-10T13:59:00.000-04:00

She had two facial expressions: a sunny naiveté, and a puppydog-eyed look of concern and compassion. Our group visited a nursing home every other Sunday. One week she held the hand of an elderly woman whose family had forgotten her birthday, and said, “I really hope you live another year!”

164 of 210 : Nora

2006-09-09T08:16:00.000-04:00

Such a lovely woman. Warm, welcoming, a true peacemaker, even when she felt passionately about some controversial issue. Always seemed to be a bit of an outsider in the village. Maybe people were frustrated because she didn’t like to badmouth others—a trait few others in town seemed to share.

163 of 210 : David #2

2006-09-08T08:23:00.000-04:00

Got an email (something forwarded again and again) from a former neighbor, one of the more prominent figures in the little town I lived in for two years. David was by turns artistic and boorish, wise and unbelievably foolish, statesmanlike and childish. I wanted to like him, I really did.

162 of 210 : Rayna

2006-09-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

We went to a club one evening where amateurs of both sexes stripped to their undies. Erik kept saying, “Titties! Lemme see titties!” Rayna, his busty date, sat on his lap and laughed uproariously. He’d already decided to propose when she got pregnant, so they just moved up the timetable.

161 of 210 : Erik

2006-09-06T08:25:00.000-04:00

Wow, just 50 more to go!

My nephew the athiest, and Hannah and Molly’s father, has grown from a rather self-centered young thing to a man utterly devoted to his family. He stumbled into the pawn business by accident, but now runs a very successful shop with designs on a more discreet, upscale version for bigwigs.

160 of 210 : Darryl

2006-09-05T00:07:00.000-04:00

My other brother, Darryl, phoned this afternoon to chat about the Roseate Spoonbill walking along the edge of the lake behind his house, and the Wood Stork preaching to a congregation of attentive egrets. Since Janet had her bout with cancer, he’s been careful to notice small glories like these.

159 of 210 : Uncle Aubrey

2006-09-04T00:50:00.000-04:00

Vinnie even outlived her son, Aubrey. He owned a general store, a wondrous place to this terminally suburban kid. It still serves that tiny town in rural Maryland, and still displays his name. When he died, the raccoons he kept in cages were released in the woods behind his home.

158 of 210 : Aunt Vinnie

2006-09-03T09:30:00.000-04:00

My great grandmother’s sister was crotchety when she was young and nearly unbearable when she was old. After she was widowed, Vinnie lived with Grandma Hoyle, and never thereafter lifted a finger. She just loved being waited on. Why her older sister and benefactor became her servant, I’ll never know.

157 of 210 : Lenny

2006-09-02T00:23:00.000-04:00

Has fascinating ideas about reincarnation. At death, he believes, the self goes back into the Great Soul like a pail of water tossed into the ocean. Then a new pail comes along to scoop up some water. The same water, the same soul? A strange admixture? Or something altogether new?

156 of 210 : Stanislav

2006-09-01T00:33:00.000-04:00

Stan Grof is a serious bigwig, basically creating transpersonal psychology. I met this great bear of a man after years of hero-worship-from-afar, and when he hugged me genially, I actually blubbered while telling him how much his work meant to me. And he wasn’t the least bit embarrassed or uncomfortable.

155 of 210 : Mrs. Gagneau

2006-08-31T00:22:00.000-04:00

My high school had a graduating class of 25, with only two of us in honors French. Mrs. Gagneau was a zaftig Haitian woman with a wonderfully sharp sense of humor, a somewhat depressing home life, and a precocious young son. She happily taught us to curse like French stevadores.

154 of 210 : Margaret

2006-08-30T06:52:00.000-04:00

My paternal grandmother had the strangest little nervous laugh; it always seemed truer than the smile she perpetually wore. An extremely kind woman, she endured a difficult marriage because it was expected, and doted on her two grandkids. She had a huge collection of pennies that I loved playing with.

153 of 210 : Jack

2006-08-29T12:10:00.000-04:00

When he’s with a small group of close friends, he can be pleasantly chatty. When he’s in a larger group, I have never heard him utter a sound, unless directly addressed, and even then the response is minimal. I’d ascribe it to shyness, but I think he’s just studying everyone.

152 of 210 : Tom #2

2006-08-28T12:56:00.000-04:00

Poets are wonderful creatures, most of them. This one is genteel, elegant, absurdly intelligent, and just a little shy, and he has a command of the English language that I deeply, deeply envy. His most shocking collection, and probably my favorite, is called Trash. His subject: serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

151 of 210 : Gigi

2006-08-27T12:12:00.000-04:00

Gigi was the ancient Pom-Chihuahua mix my mother adopted when her equally ancient owner died. An admirable companion for Mom when I moved to Vermont, Gigi’s greatest fault was impatience. She’d demand that Mom come to bed at precisely 9:30, and if she didn’t, Gigi would literally stamp her feet.

150 of 210 : Goldie

2006-08-26T00:56:00.000-04:00

Every morning started with The Howling. She’d leap onto Mom’s bed, settle, then begin: deep and quiet at first, quickly growing to a joyous, full-throated ululation. Two weeks before she died, she met a halfblood wolf at PetSmart. They danced together as if they’d been doing so for many lifetimes.

149 of 210 : Tasha

2006-08-25T00:29:00.000-04:00

When she disengaged herself from that tangled heap of puppies and immediately walked over to me, there was nothing more to be said: she had chosen me. Tashuunka Wakan Heyokah Yellowdog lived almost precisely ten years. She was my constant companion, my bed mate in winter, and once, my savior.

148 of 210 : Girl

2006-08-24T00:32:00.000-04:00

...he had a wife in tow: he had eloped! Girl was his mirror image, albeit with long hair. Such a sweet dog, but such a rebel: she’d actually entice Ransom into doing naughty things; you could see her standing by, smirking, watching him misbehave, while she kept her paws clean.

147 of 210 : Ransom

2006-08-23T12:38:00.000-04:00

The Cruzan Mutt, while not on the AKC registry, is a distinct breed on St. Croix. Ransom was a lovable galoot who ate his food without chewing. He was affectionate yet steadfastly independent, with boundless energy and a lust for life. He disappeared for three days, and when he returned...

146 of 210 : Tina and Brutus

2006-08-22T12:45:00.000-04:00

My doxies. Littermates and inseparable companions, though Brutus was more henpecked husband than brother. One rainy day Tina had to go out, but she wasn’t going to go alone. She barked—only once!—and he followed her into the rain, and stood meekly by until she had finished her business.

145 of 210 : Rusty

2006-08-21T12:20:00.000-04:00

How I adored him! Everyone did, really, even the cats, who’d weave between his legs and try to trip him, or would taunt other dogs then run to him for protection. Infinitely patient, Rusty was half Boxer, half Great Dane, all heart. I thought he’d live forever. I was wrong.

144 of 210 : Cokie

2006-08-20T00:20:00.000-04:00

My first dog (and yes, dogs count) was black, like Coca-Cola. One day my mother heard Cokie yelping his head off as I dragged him down the lawn by his tail. Moments later it was I who was yelping, as he dragged me back up the lawn by my diaper.

(Not Cokie, but darned close.)

143 of 210 : Shirley

2006-08-19T00:21:00.000-04:00

My mother’s sister has had a difficult few years. Money problems, then the loss of their home; double pneumonia, then a coma, then a long journey back to (relative) health; then her husband dies. For all that, she is unfailingly positive. I marvel at her strength, her faith, her life.

142 of 210 : Louis

2006-08-18T00:34:00.000-04:00

My paternal grandfather was a recovered alcoholic who never moved from his distressingly ratty easy chair unless it was to visit a fellow Friend of Bill in need, and not even then if Hee Haw was on TV. None of his three children enjoyed a particularly warm relationship with him.

141 of 210 : Howard

2006-08-17T12:00:00.000-04:00

My grandfather was an old man by the time he was 20. Once in a while, though, a little impishness would peek through, like the time he watched all of us playing Twister, and he gave my upended butt a shove; we were reduced to a giggling heap in seconds.

140 of 210 : Sharon

2006-08-16T10:57:00.000-04:00

My client’s AA just got a bizarre earful from me about why I’ve missed a couple of deadlines recently. My computer hard drives keep dying. Seems my incipient healing talent (I’m just a big old magnet) is wreaking havoc on them. They need a lead shield for protection from me!

139 of 210 : Dr. Wendy

2006-08-15T00:27:00.000-04:00

I was never so excited to see a doctor in my life. Mainly because this one was an M.D. who also practiced alternative medicine and shamanic healing. Yet for all her talents, perhaps her greatest was in her ability to listen, really listen, and to be completely present to others.

138 of 210 : Augie

2006-08-14T12:07:00.000-04:00

Kraig’s first boyfriend (well, the first I knew about) was murdered in a gay-bashing incident. The next, Augie, was a stripper, though I never saw him dance; he left the biz after finding love. He's terribly sweet, the perfect wife. And I almost always refrain from calling him Augie Doggie.

137 of 210 : Henry

2006-08-13T09:37:00.000-04:00

We lived in Henry’s house. Perched precariously on a shockingly steep hill on St. Croix, it overlooked the most beautiful tangle of trees and flora you could imagine. When it rained, our windows opened to a world standing between life and death. Living in Henry’s house was an incalculable gift.

136 of 210 : Father Mike

2006-08-12T00:59:00.000-04:00

He so wanted me to be a Catholic. Thought I was planning to convert, when I was only gathering data on demon possession and exorcism. He did, however, convert me to his little parish’s Saturday evening masses: quiet, comfortable, sacred in an understated way. I worshiped there for three years.

135 of 210 : B.

2006-08-11T00:09:00.000-04:00

Ever encountered someone who irritates the heck out of you on general principle, even when they haven’t done anything particularly wrong? Every time she opens her mouth, I want to do her bodily harm. She could be telling me what time it is, and I'd want to slap her. Hard.

134 of 210 : Joe

2006-08-10T00:21:00.000-04:00

He was 65 (but looked 85) when he was forced to retire from his non-profit organization because he was emotionally abusive and becoming increasingly irrational. He treated poor Mark like his personal whipping boy. He tried the same crap on me, but only once. Alzheimer's can only excuse so much.

133 of 210 : Vahan

2006-08-09T00:05:00.000-04:00

A football player with a brain, Vahan was an affable jock whose teammates seemed obsessed with his circumcision—or rather, his lack thereof. Apparently they had never seen one with a turtleneck before. I was mainly struck by his startlingly light blue eyes. He reminded me of a Siberian Husky.

132 of 210 : Tony and Wife

2006-08-08T00:57:00.000-04:00

Every November a large U-Haul pulls up at my neighbor’s home. A houseful of furniture is unloaded; a wife and small dachshund appear. Within three months she is screaming at the top of her lungs, slamming doors, cursing. The U-Haul returns; wife and dog disappear. It’s an annual holiday tradition.

131 of 210 : Connor

2006-08-07T00:10:00.000-04:00

The nine-year-old built a Fortress of Solitude out of pillows in the middle of the living room. During a party. He just wanted to be alone. I used to play Hide-and-Seek, insist on being It, and as soon as the other kids disappeared, lay low with a good book.

(Not his actual fort.)

130 of 210 : The Guy at the Drugstore

2006-08-06T00:58:00.000-04:00

He just stood there, talking to himself quite animatedly. As alarm was setting in, I realized he was talking on his cell phone using a Bluetooth headset. A week later I was near three people carrying on separate coversations on the damned things. It was like being surrounded by schizophrenics.

129 of 210 : Robert the Bruce

2006-08-05T01:13:00.000-04:00

No, the Robert the Bruce. Apparently I’m his descendant, through my great aunt on my father’s side, who was a McIntyre, and gave me a tea towel with Robert the Bruce’s picture on it. “Never forget,” she’d say at every family gathering, in a nearly indecipherable brogue, “yer from royalty!”

128 of 210 : The Librarian

2006-08-04T00:01:00.000-04:00

I’ve always loved libraries, and have often worked in them. One day Mr. N_______, our effete high school librarian, drew me aside and said he had a book he thought I’d particularly enjoy. My anticipation turned to repugnance when I saw it was a photo book of nude pre-pubescent boys.

128 of 210 : Carlyle

2006-08-02T22:07:00.000-04:00

I remember the Rector Search Committee asking her about her sexuality, a concern the bishop had raised since she was middle-aged and had never been married. She laughed and said, "For the record, no, I am not a lesbian. But I reserve the right to be!" We hired her immediately.

127 of 210 : Corinne

2006-08-02T00:41:00.000-04:00

She’d always get an A+++ for her Social Studies maps. Mine were perfect, how could hers be better? One day I peeked: she’d drawn 3-D contours around the land masses! So I copied her technique, though I still only got an A+. The teacher must’ve had the hots for her.

126 of 210 : Bjorn and Kjell

2006-08-01T00:41:00.000-04:00

The most identical of twins, they were both really nice guys, but one of them considered me a good friend. Problem is, I never knew which one that was. I think it was Bjorn, but I’m not sure. Then again, I couldn’t tell them apart, so it didn’t really matter.

125 of 210 : Mary Beth

2006-07-31T00:33:00.000-04:00

Let’s see: she’s my half-brother’s son’s wife’s mother. Which means we’re not really related, thank God. She sent me the most inflammatory email, unbelievably homophobic and racist. I explained how offensive it was. She said she hadn’t actually read it before forwarding it. I told her that was even worse.

124 of 210 : Cisco and Vicenta

2006-07-30T00:46:00.000-04:00

Fullblood Yaquis, they gave me my “Indian name,” as they called it: Maito Sewa Yoleme. El Milador de Milagros. I saw them in a dream two years before I met them. Heroin stole a few years from Cisco, and even treasured friendships can fade, but I still feel their presence.

123 of 210 : Carl

2006-07-29T08:03:00.000-04:00

We’d sing the night away at Friends, our favorite piano bar (there was nothing Carl couldn't play, but he loved the old standards best). At 2 we’d go dancing at eXile, then around dawn head to Au Pied du Cochon in Georgetown, where we’d unfailingly order lobster and fried eggs.

122 of 210 : The Stamp Man

2006-07-28T00:36:00.000-04:00

We went back to his house for drinks after Ingrid’s. Once there he accused us of stealing his stamp collection. He showed us his badly burned torso—courtesy, he said, of his ex-wife who similarly coveted his stamps. When he pulled a large kitchen knife, we ran for our lives.

121 of 210 : Julie

2006-07-27T00:06:00.000-04:00

When my cousin divorced her first husband, it was for good reason. She then married a sweet, hardworking guy who was devoted to her daughters and utterly worshiped her. This week we learned that she’s left him and is in love with someone else. Even her daughters think she’s nuts.

120 of 210 : The Astrologer

2006-07-26T00:56:00.000-04:00

I went to a professional to me help interpret my birth chart. He studied the printout in silence for several uncomfortable minutes, occasionally glancing up at me nervously. Then he rubbed his hands together and said, gamely, “Well, let’s try to find something that’s positive in this chart, shall we?”

119 of 210 : Sal

2006-07-25T09:07:00.000-04:00

Few college characters were more fascinating than the drug-and-drink-addled fellow who lived next door. One early morning I answered the banging on my door to find Sal standing there, stark naked and with a raging erection, asking if I had orange juice so he could make screwdrivers for his girlfriend.

118 of 210 : Holly #2

2006-07-24T00:07:00.000-04:00

I honestly can’t recall how we met, but she was four years my junior, and in my senior year in college I took her to her high school prom. She had a smoking body, and a smoky, sexy, DJ’s voice. Alas, I was more interested in her (male) best friend.

117 of 210 : Holly #1

2006-07-23T00:15:00.000-04:00

A sweet girl with a hole in her heart. When we became friends, she warned me that if she ever fainted, I was to let her lie still, and she’d come to after a few minutes. One day, on the way to dinner, she fainted. But she never came to.

116 of 210 : Marguerite

2006-07-22T00:19:00.000-04:00

When I was a baby, she’d carry me with my head in the palm of her hand, my body draped across her forearm; I’d giggle continuously as I watched the world go by. We start out in bliss, then spend the rest of our lives trying to find it again.

115 of 210 : Pick Temple

2006-07-21T00:18:00.000-04:00

Even though I’d already been on Romper Room, I found myself on the Pick Temple Show, a local Western-themed kid’s show. Those of us in the onstage Peanut Gallery saw what went on behind the scenes in making a television show, and I wasn’t alone in finding it terribly disillusioning.

114 of 210 : J.D.

2006-07-20T00:13:00.000-04:00

J.D.’s horse came to me in a dream. “Tell them he’s afraid of his power, that his bluster will disappear when he embraces his talents as healer and psychopomp.” I’ll also tell you he fashions singular works of wearable art from stones and wire. Power will out, as they say.

113 of 210 : Gregg

2006-07-19T00:28:00.000-04:00

Pen-pal Gregg forwarded some oddly poetic e-spam, translated from the Russian: Let us restore the neglected calculation. Leader! From you suddenly left bookkeeper? You they did betray? You are substituted? Tomorrow tax? Bookkeeping cruelty! Tracking calculation by our specialized company, minimization of Nalogooblazheniya, resolution of debatable questions in tax organs.

112 of 210 : Pat #4

2006-07-18T00:03:00.000-04:00

Your classic playground bully. Pat was bigger, heavier, and stronger than any other fourth grader, but still found it necessary to terrorize everyone else. When he showed up with a badly sprained but inartfully wrapped thumb, he was frightened and in serious pain. I made friends with him that day.

111 of 210 : Pat #3

2006-07-17T00:09:00.000-04:00

Pat and Ginger were best man and matron of honor at my parents’ wedding. When Ginger became ill, Pat took care of her. When Pat became ill, I drove him to treatments. She went to a nursing home, he went to hospice; a month later, they died—two days apart.