Keiran’s heart jumped against his ribs. “Bluidy-faugh!” He snapped his chin over his shoulder and ordered the MacNeil warriors again, “Heave! Heave!” Two heartbeats later, the bowsprit broke through the thick mist. He pushed the falcon’s aerial view from his head and watched as Sorcha disappeared into the white waves. Gasps issued overhead from the […] Read more

Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather! He smiled. It was family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather! Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather […] Read more

No Good Surprises Having now been involved in nearly 20,000 real estate transactions, it has come to my attention that there are no good surprises in real estate. Surprisingly enough, not once has a buyer ever called the office to say that, to their great and happy surprise, the home has more bedrooms than what […] Read more

On the eve of a 1917 performance at New York City’s Hippodrome, Harry Houdini was cinched into a straitjacket and hoisted upside down from his ankles by a subway derrick. Thirty feet above Forty-Sixth Street and Broadway he convulsed, wriggled, and swayed. Seconds later he maneuvered free, escaping the brutal bond to a roar of […] Read more

They say the devil makes work for idle hands. He also makes work for other parts of the body and this he calls exercise. By exercise we mean any kind of movement you wouldn’t normally make in everyday life. However, everyday movements can be converted into exercise by adding the ‘power’: hence ‘power walking,’, ‘power […] Read more

“When you’ve finished reading this book you probably won’t HAVE all the skills needed to compete with professional voice-overs; that takes months, even years of practice. But you’ll KNOW what those skills ARE, and when you do practice you’ll know what you should be doing. More importantly, you’ll know what you SHOULDN’T be doing. That’s […] Read more

A changing room is halfway between a meeting room and a bathroom. It’s the only place where you have to be businesslike and naked at the same time. Communal showers have two temperatures: glacial or scalding. Standing at one side with your hand in the shower will not significantly alter the temperature either way. At […] Read more

Howard Hughes, age 14, was the worst driver in the history of the world. At least, that was what Bernice Edelman thought. Certainly, not the reclusive Howard Hughes known to Hollywood. It was Knappa, Oregon’s own. Bernice worked at Hoffstetter’s grocery store, and part of her responsibilities was to deliver groceries in Mr. Hoffstetter’s car […] Read more

Why do we call it rush hour when no one goes anywhere? Like rush hour takes only one hour. Maybe we should have a slow hour — 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. except weekends. Last week, I merged into traffic so hairy that people were actually backing off the freeway. And while I, myself, suffer […] Read more