Authors Electric

" It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. " One can get sick of being right. Just ask Santa.  Were he alive today, Charles Dickens might be proud that  A Tale of Two Cities , published in 1859,  endures as a literary classic. But I suspect he'd be uncomfortable at how much its darkness remains relevant today.   Not to compare myself with Dickens, or to Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, I feel the same about my holiday novella, "Milagro on 34th Street," published in 2012. I'd glad it remains entertaining. But I regret that it seems to have been more prophetic each year since then .  The Santa novella mixes my 1990s experiences as a  department store Santa, with satire of my favorite holiday movie, "Miracle on ...

Civics assignment It's not easy being an American metropolis these days - besieged by neofascist nativist, hassled by hatemongers, lied about, loathed, baited while its people struggle to live up to challenging dreams of opportunity, freedom, enterprise, and cosmopolitanism. We urbanites visualize of our hometowns as centers of art, technology, education, science, architecture, and enterprise. Meanwhile, the Trump 2.0 demagogues recently returned to Washington DC have made us their convenient targets again, just as they did in 2016. Last time, they separated immigrant families and jailed children in detention camps. The cruelty was not accidental. It was the goal. This time Trump's goons are apparently taking special aim as U.S. schoolchildren. As if it's not enough that American kids and their teachers have been exposed to mass shootings for decades thanks to the political clout of right-wing gun fanatics and gun makers. Now, less than a month into Trump 2.0 our kids worry...

Working like dogs, w/Nibblick, & MJain Liars want to eat my neighborhood again. Their threat is clearer and more immediate this time. With deadlocked polls putting him in short-fingered reach of the U.S. Presidency again, Hair Hitler vows to round up tens of millions of people - immigrants and anyone opposing him he can "denaturalize" - and put them in concentration camps. Even Demagogue Don admits his political pogrom - involving the military, and local police - would be a blood-soaked affair. But, like the purges of Stalin and other genocidal strongmen Trump adulates - purges would aim at terrorizing the populace and consolidating dictatorial power for him and his cronies. Chicago does El Grito (Sun Times) It's not politics. It's personal. Tumpistas have put my blended family and my mixed neighborhood in their  orange crosshairs, just as they did during Trump's first White House term, There can only be one response. Nope! We're not going back! In the wee...

Nicholas Gemini. Wikimedia Commons The intention of this blog is to help, if only momentarily, set aside despair. Recent events in the Disunited Kingdom leave little room for hope, laughter or any of the positives that normally make life so enjoyable. The Theatre of the Absurd has taken over but, unfortunately, only its tragic aspects have prevailed. We have been comprehensively shafted by feckless, inadequate ‘leaders’ whose influence has been extended far beyond their capabilities. From the security of their moneyed interiors, their perceptions of reality were and are shaped by preconceptions of social ‘truths’ which called for the intervention of people like themselves to protect our colonial legacy and perpetuate our insularity. They wanted to ensure that scenes such as that which follows would be eliminated from our lives, along with jobs, welfare, social security and a national health service. DENISE:         Dad, this is Grdsyyx. DAD:   ...