Brad Zellar —Abel Pann You know how your heart moves, how it lurches and staggers and sways like a beaten bell in your chest. You know how it sounds: That sound. Those noises. That familiar music. The rattle of a cold slate shingle banging up against your ribs. The squeak of its eraser at work somewhere just … Read more
What do you want from me? Answers? I’m out of answers, brothers and sisters. In fact, I’m completely out of questions. I’ve got a head full of nothing, and whatever nonsense or wisdom I might cough up isn’t going to be of any use to a baseball team that right now couldn’t find its way … Read more
These days at the complicated intersection of Washington and Broadway, the downtrodden God-Bless-You gang works in shifts along the stoplight medians. There’s a steady stream of traffic, and the location offers proximity to plenty of bars, fast food, and, perhaps most conveniently, the Jug liquor store across the street. There’s a guy with a cardboard … Read more
We have all been expelled from the Garden, but the ones who suffer most in exile are those who are still permitted to dream of perfection. –Stanley Kunitz, “Reflections” [assez] [assez dit] [pas assez bon] [pas suffisant] [de trop] [arrete!] [shhhhhhh…]
It’s pretty apparent by this time that there isn’t a single trade in the world that’s going to make any kind of significant difference in the Twins’ fortunes. And, sure, I remember the Shannon Stewart trade, but that was then and this is now. At the moment there isn’t one guy who could reinvigorate this … Read more
…what is it we are all doing, what is it we are about, pray tell? And why are we gathered here? —Raymond Carver, “All My Relations” I’m on my way with dust in my shoes, free of mythology: Send books back to their shelves, I’m going down into the streets. I learned about life from … Read more
Indubitably that wasn’t precisely the performance any of us were pining to see from the local nine coming out of the All Star getaway. And, agreed, Bret Boone wasn’t quite the shot in the bum we all so desperately hoped he might be. And yes, yes, I did see that the Chicago lumbermen were victorious … Read more
—Abel Pann He would have been seventy-two years old this week. By the time he was my age he had four children and a literally broken heart. He did what he could. He taught wonder. I still sense him coiled like a discus hurler behind every one of my best intentions. His blood is the … Read more
I was born a clown, and in retrospect my parents were incredibly good sports about what must surely have been on a number of levels a shock and a disappointment. They’d been trying for years to have a child, and they accepted me immediately as a blessing and loved me unconditionally for what I was. … Read more
It’s no secret that people of great achievement are often abject curiosities and spectacular failures as human beings, and this was certainly true of Tchaikovsky, who lived in my hometown when I was growing up. I can’t truly claim that it was my privilege to know the man, or even that to know him would … Read more