Brick

I knew a Jay Gatsby. We were in grade school in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and stayed close through high school. It prob­a­bly wasn’t until junior high when I saw this trait of his — sim­ply put it’s a per­son sure he can buy friends with money. But that is so sim­ple it sounds socio­pathic, when …

When I’m dri­ving some­where with My Beloved, when (not if) she cor­rects my nav­i­ga­tion, I recall the junior high geom­e­try class phrase “describ­ing the sides of a rec­tan­gle.” The dis­tance and time are roughly the same: My over then down, or her under then up, and there you are, thptpth. This is the feel­ing I …

This col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the March 2012 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. With cer­tainty, the renown physi­cist Gar­ri­son Keil­lor noted in his radio spot The Writer’s Almanac: On this date [Feb. 23] in 1927, physi­cist Werner Heisen­berg first described his Uncer­tainty Prin­ci­ple in a let­ter. In …

This col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the Feb­ru­ary 2012 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. Spring — OK, this is win­ter but I’m an opti­mist — is busy-time for the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. • We’re halfway through gath­er­ing entries for the annual Col­umn Con­test. Have you sent …

This col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the Jan­u­ary 2012 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. Who among us still owns a type­writer? My Smith-Corona man­ual portable that saw me through high school and col­lege is in the attic, but it works. On a desk for address­ing envelopes is a …

An excerpt of this long-form col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the Decem­ber 2011 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds? Cap­tain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gam­bling is going on in here! Croupier: Your win­nings, sir. Cap­tain Renault: …

This col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the Novem­ber 2011 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. “How can there be any sin in sin­cere? “Where is the good in good­bye?“ – “Sin­cere” by Mered­ith Will­son in The Music Man It may be yet another way of stalling the labor of writ­ing, …

This col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the Octo­ber 2011 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. Your pres­i­dent is look­ing out for your wel­fare. Thank me later. Tracy Beck­er­man, chair­man of the Social Media Com­mit­tee, although an NSNC mem­ber for sev­eral years, still is try­ing to fig­ure us out. Just before Labor …