Non-Fiction

The House No One Lived In

By: Tom Sheehan – Posted: July 1, 2010

They considered themselves midnight adventurers, coming off the hill they so lovingly called Henshit Mountain, to cross the pond in the dead of winter with sleds to “borrow” lumber from Artie Donolan who had ”borrowed” it from Breakheart Reservation, a state park. The park, at its deepest end, bordered on land that the Donolans had worked for years, including timber they ripped out of the state park as long as a few eyes stayed closed. To the boys from Henshit Mountain, the Donolan rape was not unknown, not to these teenagers, who were only enacting their own form of justice, borrowing enough lumber to build themselves a clubhouse at the thickly-treed section of the mountain. With various spurts of energy, even in summer when they floated rafts of lumber across the same pond from the same lumberyard, rooms were added to the clubhouse. The building rose majestically, they all agreed, they who had to a man become proficient carpenters and finish men.

The Gustav Evacuation, Part 4: Our Return

By: Ryan Sparks – Posted: October 15, 2009

All bad things must come to an end.

The Gustav Evactuation, Part 3: The Wait, by Ryan Sparks

We know what we smell like, okay?  Hours and hours under the sun or smothered by night heat have us sweating coffee, sweating Red Bull.  The clench of old cigarette smoke.  Fast food and soda breath.  We are covered in pet hair or the sticky evidence of children’s fingerprints.  We ceased to smell like travelers [...]

The Gustav Evacuation, Part 2: The Drive, by Ryan Sparks

Cue the music. We’re going for a ride.
It’s hot as Labor Day weekend should be, summer’s last holiday, last chance to boil. We have our windows down and the music is passing between cars and mixing in the space between, pidgin notes and lyrics. The few radio stations not on a constant [...]

The Gustav Evacuation, Part 1: Preparations, by Ryan Sparks

As Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf states in August of 2008, memories of the Katrina disaster triggered the largest evacuation in US history. Three million fled the oncoming hurricane. Most of the refugees were from the Louisiana south coast. Author, New Orleans resident, and Katrina veteran Ryan Sparks was among [...]

The Original Subprime Industry by Thomas Sullivan

At noon I head out to Beaverton, an unfamiliar suburb on the outskirts of Portland, to teach yet another driving lesson. I need some fun after this morning’s travails, and I get a pleasant break. I have three kids in the car, which can be entertaining if the human dynamics work. If they’re in a [...]

I don’t like Thursdays: Why Thanksgiving is for Turkeys by Amy Czechorosky

by Amy Czechorosky
Last weekend the little flyers started coming with my deliveries of the Los Angeles Times. They all say the same thing: ‘There is no Thanksgiving in Tijuana.’
That’s right. ‘There is no Thanksgiving in Tijuana.’ Well, that’s just great. Now not only do I have to feel sad for the people in Tijuana not [...]

You Poison Like a Girl by Gabriella Herkert

by Gabriella Herkert
There are so many cool ways to knock people off. You have to have a natural bent toward the dark side, of course, but the methodology appeals to the airier, more creative brain cells. Since I didn’t want to get famous under the heading stupid criminals, I knew I’d have to carefully resolve [...]