Author: Brad Zellar

  • Sweet Dreams, Always, Dog Of My Soul

        You were born thirteen years and seven months ago, in the middle of a January night so cold the defroster in my old pickup truck wouldn’t work on the drive to the emergency clinic. You were the last pup born, the runt of the litter, and I watched in exhausted wonder as you…

  • A Confounding, Improbable Team Once Again Achieves The Confounding And The Improbable

    That logo’s just fine if you’re talking about Johan Santana. You’ll need to insert your own mental s, however, if you’re referring to the Twins’ offense. Down at the Dome this weekend they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the 1987 World Series championship season. Somehow, despite scoring three runs over three games, the Twins managed…

  • Dog Days

    It’s been a mighty strange season, and I’m frankly exhausted. It obviously doesn’t take a whole lot of psychic energy to follow a genuinely good team. That’s probably not true, though, at least strictly speaking; to really follow any baseball team, day in and day out, takes a tremendous amount of psychic energy. It’s a…

  • The Knife Of God

    Yes, boy, I could sure go for some beef stew and a chicken bone. That’s it. –Last words of Christopher Newton, whose execution by lethal injection in Lucasville, Ohio took nearly two hours (May 24, 2007) I summon you now Not to think of The ceaseless battle With pain and ill health, The frailty and…

  • The Grindstone And The Garden

    …if people who expect nothing come away empty-handed, then there really is no hope. —William Maxwell, Time Will Darken It The dead flicker like candles around you. They are burning their memories for warmth. —Kelly Link, “Flying Lessons” This world is full of war criminals, many of whom have never fired a weapon in their…

  • Back To Zero: Ptolemy's Heroes

    A history of zero. Null. Nil. Naught. Nada. Zip. Zippo. Goose eggs.