I was chatting with my friend Kelly last night, and we both confessed that we’re entirely baffled by some people’s behavior surrounding the pandemic. Kelly is one of the toughest people I know. Anytime I fancy myself a bit of a badass, with my live warheads and sightings of test pilots, I remind myself that […]
Over the spring and early summer, the pullets grow into young hens, Inglorion finishes the Thousand Nights and One Night, and both households’ crops mature. Brutus gives Inglorion a tobacco plant and teaches him how to cultivate it. Summer settles in, and it’s as bad as everyone says. Worse, since predictions and warnings are abstract, […]
This afternoon, I suddenly felt quite happy. I’ve noticed that both happiness and misery spring from trivial causes, but that it’s wiser to notice the former, and to treat the latter with lordly indifference. Here, then, are my reasons for happiness: I actually enjoy going to El Rio to pick up prescriptions. Today I went […]
It’s Independence Day. All of the firework shows in Tucson were cancelled because there are fires raging out of control in the Santa Catalina mountains, and we are in the middle of a global pandemic. Naturally, this means that all of my neighbors started shooting off fireworks around 10 a.m., and the various amateur shows […]
Today I looked at Arizona’s numbers — I’m experimenting with using the Johns Hopkins website, which is updated more frequently than covidtracking.com, but sends my iPhone into a frenzy of error messages and page reloading — and I panicked. Here’s how we look on coronavirus.jhu.edu: Arizona, US Confirmed: 79,215 Deaths: 1,641 Recovered: 0 Active: 77,574 […]
As soon as he gets home, Inglorion calls out to his son, “Lucius, I need your help with something.” “Oui, mon pére?” Lucius looks up. He’s fiddling with a handful of feathers, fashioning them into some kind of head ornament. “I’m going to steal the iron owl off the façade of the Owl’s Club building. […]
I don’t have words for a lot of what’s happening. The symptoms in my own neighborhood hit me the hardest. So today I’ll share some of the signs and murals and street art that I see on my morning walks. Tucson is the most magical place I know. Inglorion in the Elysian Fields is a […]
“How long have you been in this land?” Brutus asks casually, as if he’s making conversation. He’s studying Inglorion’s face intently. “Not long. A few weeks.” “How did you come here?” Inglorion’s gaze flickers over to the older man’s face. It’s impassive. Now that the dark is falling, Inglorion’s eyes are shifting to dark vision, […]
The following morning, a package appears on the front porch. It’s wrapped in brown paper, secured with twine, and addressed to Inglorion in a bold, slanted hand. He opens it with trembling hands to find the first volume of Sir Richard Burton’s Thousand Nights and One Night. The paper and binding are stiff and fragile with age. […]
Now that there are two mouths to feed, Lucius sends Inglorion to buy a half-dozen pullets, saying, “Lots of people sell them around here, but I’d recommend this fellow Brutus. He sells a few from his flock every now and then, and I think you’ll find him interesting.” And so Inglorion walks a few miles […]
