Bed by Day

In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer, quite the other way, I have to go to bed by day. -Robert Louis Stevenson, Bed in Summer I’ve had debilitating migraines since I was ten…

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The Health of a Nation

Last night, I had a dream that I was in an airplane and it was landing and I kept looking up front at the cockpit and wanting to see outside but it was blocked, just this blue door and white…

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Fear Factor

I am continually discovering how much of my life is fueled by fear. I’ve ridiculed fear a lot in this blog lately, most especially in criticizing what motivates voters and pointing out how silly it is for Americans to fear…

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Squinting at a Mirror in the Early Morning Hours

Two mornings ago, I awoke from a dream in which I’d been debating competitively and before an interventionist judge. At 7 minutes into an 8:30 speech, he told me “That’s seven minutes,” stopped flowing, and started flowing the remaining on-case…

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31: I’m Still Here

Last night, I had a dream about admitting a romantic interest to one of my oldest friends who I liked for some years back in the day. In the dream, it was acknowledged with the effortless casuality of ancient history…

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Friday Without a Cause

There’s no debate this weekend. Not because there’s no scheduled tournament, but because that tournament doesn’t serve the purposes of the Rutgers team. It’s in British Parliamentary style, designed to prepare American teams for competition on the Worlds stage, with…

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Raining in Baltimore: Return 2 APDA

I spent the weekend at my first APDA tournament since Nationals 2007. In my new role as coach of the Rutgers team, I was ensuring that the team could get there (they have significant transportation challenges) and getting an early…

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Six Hours Good, Eight Hours Bad

Last night, I threw in the towel early after about 1,200 words. Not a bad output – way better than zero – and I even felt pretty good about them. I was actually reading my early chronicles of writing Loosely…

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Spirits in the Material World

Then one day the sky fell in and freedom lost control and ran off the road and hit a pole And it was all and it was nothing at all -Josh Joplin Group, “Dutch Wonderland” Woke up this morning in…

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