Charles Alexander
Parting Glances: Chicken nuggets: 3/4 time!
I usually don't read e-mail jokes that arrive unsolicited. (I enjoy doing my own solicitation, in a variety of subject areas, I might add. If you haven't been solicited by me – as yet – what can I say?) A joke I did allow to filter my SPAM trap [...]
Parting Glances: Well, bless my poperazzi!
I'm reluctant to share the following e-mail with my spiritually minded Parting Glances readers, so many of whom are touchy about controversial issues concerning fashion-conscious nuns in out-of-the-way locals My e-mail comes from Boston. Home of [...]
Parting Glances: Sister's rhythm method
Sixty years ago a British historian started a rumor that Richard the Lionheart was gay, based on a parchment saying the king (who ruled England with anything but a limp wrist from 1189 to 1199) had spent a cozy night in bed with Philip ll Augustus, [...]
Parting Glances: And don't bring Toto, either
I keep running into Sister Scatterpin — Renegade Sisters of Mary — in the darndest places. This time the express checkout of my neighborhood, nothing-over-a-dollar, everyone-under-the-counter, Old World Super Mart. [If you recall, the good sister [...]
Parting Glances: Ah spring! Play cup free!
Baseball season's upon us. A sure sign of spring. Along with relentless April showers. Insatiable robins hunting worms. Weeds sprouting up. Mud. More mud. Oh, well. Astroturf. Batter up! I confess I'm not a fan, though I live close to Comerica Park. [...]
Parting Glances: The usual suspects (Pt. 2)
"After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again – that's no threat – that's a promise." Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson made this boast to Madeline Brown, his longtime mistress, at a party held at the palatial home of Texas [...]
Parting Glances: A fable for any time
There was a young man who was down on his luck. He lost his job in January. In February his boyfriend dumped him. His cat died in March. His wallet was stolen in April. Worse, he turned 29 in May. June brought summer; and in spite of the sunshine he [...]
Parting Glances: The Mind Boggles Dep't.
In case there are Parting Glances readers who somehow didn't come across this curious AP newswire item, here are three paragraphs. Believe them or not. "WICHITA, Kansas – Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend's toilet [...]
Parting Glances:It often starts with...
… a stranger passing on the street. An unexpected reminder of someone you knew a long, long time ago. Someone about whom, until now, you had quite forgotten existed. Hadn't given them one blessed thought one way or another. The older you are, the [...]
Parting Glances: Let's leap times four
I spend February 29th late lunching with three friends. Nancy. Treena. Ellen. A painter. A gallery coordinator. A poet. All straight. All avid fans of BTL. We brave persistent snow during this day's 2008 bissextile concession to Gregorian calendar [...]
Parting Glances: Genesis XXIV & VII
1. In the year of the whirling wind, blasting sands, cascading rain; the year of the mongrel beast of war endlessly chasing its flea-bitten tail, a prophet of restless dudes scaled Mt. Rushnomore, seeking counsel with the electrifying powers that [...]
Parting Glances: No harness in heaven
Divine revelation sometimes happens absurdly. As the Second Century philosopher Tertullian once said of Christianity, "I believe because it's absurd." Such absurdity purportedly happened four years ago last Halloween to Bruce Tarzhay (aka Rev. Bruce [...]