I’d gone to the place of the hermit not too many years before expecting the usual. Dusty brushes with horse hair at the end of a stick, ash from an old cigar and some crushed shell thrown around the room, the Ace, the Queen, the Five of Hearts and Two of Spades on the table next to a glass ball and a chicken foot.
He had found it almost by accident, the strange stone monkey, an artifact worth a lot to an old guy in Chicago. Three days later he was on a cot in a hut in Fortaleza in the depths of something a lot like malaria. It was the monkey – the Gypsy Monkey, they called it – and it spoke to him in his twisted dreams. Make your choice, make your sacrifice.
The thing I am most grateful for is my children. They have provided a clarity and focus to my life I never thought possible. They make me want to be a better dad. They make me want to be a better man.
I. The Alliance, the last of the war frigates, bound tight to the dock by the tie-lines, held fast and creaked against the sharp chop off the harbor. A brackish mix of brown-white froth assailed her starboard. The thick ropes... Continue Reading →
This has not been the easiest post-election week. I predicted a Hillary blow-out, for whatever that's worth now. And as the Democratic Party -- and the nation -- goes through a sort of reckoning, so too am I going through my... Continue Reading →
I've been involved in politics and campaigns for a long time now. Hillary Clinton is going to be a remarkable president. I think she is being underestimated right now, which is fine. But she has spent a lifetime shaping domestic and global policy. She understands the levers of power probably better than anyone preparing to lead the free world. This is nothing but a benefit to America. And that's a great reason to vote for her.
benjamin j kirby 