Land of a Thousand Leaks

You can read the column I write for a local newspaper right here. Just click on “Current Issue” and look for my piece at the top of page 2.

For Your Snow Day Listening Pleasure

 On Pod of Horror #80, Kealan Patrick Burke tells us about Sour Candy...Nanci and Mark talk about David Bowie, The X-Files and maybe some horror...and we review books by Kealan Patrick Burke and Brian Keene.

If you’re a horror fan, this is the one podcast you can’t afford to miss! You can listen to Pod of Horror on iTunes or stream it right here. Just click on the link below.

4casting

I was asked this many times today: “How much snow we gettin’?”

I checked four different weather forecasting services. The only thing they can agree on is that they can’t agree.

When Norma was doing TV weather I learned it’s difficult to accurately predict the weather more than a day in the future. Too many things can change. So why do we have Five Day, Seven Day and Ten Day forecasts?

Because you demand them. You insist on knowing the unknowable. That’s why forecasters have to engage in a process that we in broadcasting call Making Shit Up.

Fortunately, I do have some insight. Here it is:

It’s going to snow A LOT.

Or it isn’t.

Either way, you can’t do jack about it. So relax.

Maybe it will be a pleasant, though cool, weekend. Or it will be, as you suspect, THE END OF CIVILIZATION AS WE KNOW IT!! In that case, I recommend thermal underwear and hot cocoa. Oh, and about thirty loaves of bread from the store.

Best of Pod of Horror?

I’ve been thinking about doing an occasional “Best of Pod of Horror”, featuring excerpts from maybe three or so of our interviews over the past decade. Each “Best of” would have links to the full interviews in our archives.

Yes, you can go directly to the archives and listen to the old episodes now, but this way you could sample a portion of an interview with someone you might not ordinarily be interested in. 

That’s my thinking, anyway.

Keep in mind I’m short on sleep and way too caffeinated.

Would you guys be interested in this?

What I Did With My Sunday

In addition to writing, we recorded a great installment of The Call of Kalanta today. Nanci and I discussed David Bowie, The X-Files, The Taco Society and, oh, yeah, horror.

Pod of Horror #80 will go live on Wednesday with special guest Kealan Patrick Burke. You’ll find it here.

 

Back in Time

Yesterday I had occasion to be in a building where I once worked, more than 30 years ago.

It’s a different place now. New business. New owners. Completely remodeled. Except...

Except I could see the old place, like a ghost image. Two photographs overlapping. I thought of my time there, and tried to conjure up one single good memory.

I couldn’t. All I remembered was screaming, cursing, unhappiness and general dysfunctional behavior.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to stay long.

As I drove home, I realized there had to be one or two pleasant recollections associated with that place, if only I could dig down deep. And then I thought of my life today, and realized that my experiences in that place helped shaped me into the man who built a life far better than all that craziness so long ago.

So, I acknowledge that time. But only just barely. It’s 2016 and I’ve got things to do.

Meme of the Week

Mr. Powerball

This week in my newspaper column, I reveal what I’ll do once I inevitably win the Powerball. You can read it for free here. My column is on page 2. Also, past columns are available in the archives.