Excuse me, did you just call me a fad?

March 23, 2010 by The Clever Kris · 5 Comments
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, faith, family, life 

I learned what the meaning of fad was the hard way.  And I don’t just mean having to look it up in a dictionary. Since, I come before the mandatory use of home computers. I had a personal encounter with the word. It’s surprising, though, what one’s personal history of fads says about oneself. For me, in retrospect, my string of passing fancies was equivalent to that annoying solid beep of an emergency broadcast—“ in the event of an actual emergency, contact information will be provided.” That second part there, that never happened. Some of my “interests” were rather unique to me and me alone....

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I’m not sure if it was a dead animal or just cheese grits.

October 15, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, faith, family, life, writing 
And they'll turn on you quicker than a cottonmouth.

They’ve got something with doors, around here. It’s the oddest thing: no double doors are both unlocked, at the same time. Only one side is. Ever.  And you never know which side because it’s never the same side. This causes no end of embarrassment, as you can imagine. Especially for me, a new faculty member. Call me crazy but it really is a blow to your credibility when you can’t even open a door properly. It’s happened to me twice already today. This morning as I went to deliver the receipts from my conference trip, I turned back to tell the secretary, “Have a good...

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I'm addicted to crack (machines).

June 5, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
Won't someone help this pretend man?

There's an epidemic in Starkville. I know because I'm very attuned to these things. Like any hypochondriac. It's crack (machines). I speak from experience. (And I'm pretty sure it's not an epidemic of One, but if it is, that's ok, because the army is an Army of One, and I know for a fact that there's more than one person in the army.  I'm stepping forward to speak today because I'm no longer afraid to confess that I'm addicted. Perhaps, I can speak as One for us All. Perhaps, my story will help others). I could hardly write that last sentence without giggling...at least,...

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The Parable of the Good Alcoholic.

May 5, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
To show the whole total would just be too gauche.

I figure there are two ways to burn a bridge:  whiskey, and everything else. I admit it: There's something beautiful in a martini glass; something so achingly elegant in the way a champagne flute plays its score.  And I know it must be in my blood because I wasn't brought up to drink, it was never glorified, and certainly not encouraged, not in a Baptist household.  (At least the Jews in my family drank wine, but I didn't know them very well, and they always seemed to be committing suicide or losing a few children in Oklahoma or some such dramatic thing...

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You can go home again…it's just frustrating.

April 27, 2009 by The Clever Kris · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Everyday 
I've lost my keys...and the doorknob.

Thomas Wolfe wrote, "You can't go home again."  (At least, I think he did). But you know what: you can. I do it every Sunday. Mainly because I don't want to miss Nana's cooking; it's in a class of its own...and I love going home, I do, but you want to know a secret:  It's also quite often very aggravating. Why is that?  Why is going home such a frustrating experience? Sometimes, I think, it's because as soon as I open that front door and step inside, I'll see that nothing has changed, and I'll feel like I haven't changed either. And I hate that feeling. Despite...

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