We’ve been carless for about a month. I’ve been walking, biking, bumming rides. I walked to the in-town grocery store yesterday. There are no sidewalks, hardly any shoulders, but I made it. There’s a big hill. I passed a dead skunk, got a few rocks in my right shoe. …

Your answer depends on how important you think your own comfort is. The primary product of pets these days is comfort. From another point of view, the primary labor they perform is service. And I’m not going to argue that that has no value, or that pets don’t benefit from…

We bought it before Charlotte was born, A goofy stuffed gray toy dubbed “Donkey Man.” We gave it to her before she could stand, And she loved it very moderately. A million more followed: Doggie Doggie, Daddy Fox, Baby Fox, Dee the Deer, and Yes, these all are really really real names Of…

At 6 I knew that “fuck” was the word to use whenever you were angry or frustrated or wanted to get under someone’s skin. This was back before I knew words like rancor and spite and abuse. At 6 I knew that “divorce” was a threat. They fought morning, afternoon, evening. They…