The View from a Drawbridge

Tag: romantic

  • Please Don’t Flaunt Your Flowers

    So, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Hurray for love! I hope you appreciate it every day of the year. Love really is all that matters in this world, and the romantic kind is beyond compare. Having said that, I hope you will be a bit sensitive to those of us who don’t have it in our…

  • When the Love Spell is Broken

    Love is like a drug. When you’re deep in it, especially in the early stages, it’s hard to see flaws. Red flags just look like a pretty splash of color in your world. You want to bask in the fact that you seem to have found evidence of perfection, and that perfect person, against all…

  • A Romantic Vacation for One

    This is a story I told at a recent gathering here in Seattle called Fresh Ground Stories. The theme this time was, “You can’t always get what you want.” Normally, when I tell a story at this event, I am able to attach a recording of it here. Sadly the recorder crapped out, so I…

  • Greetings from a Former Brothel

    During my recent visit to Port Townsend, Washington, I explored a gorgeously restored Victorian edifice called the Palace Hotel. This brick building was built in 1889, and has housed many things throughout its history, including a billiard room, a saloon, a newspaper, a theater, a grocery store and several restaurants. But, most famously, for 8…

  • Marriage Contracts

    I was listening to Weekend Edition on NPR the other day, and they were discussing the fact that in Israel, a woman cannot get divorced without her husband’s permission. Even a secular woman in that country is bound by this ancient Jewish practice. So if you have a vindictive husband with nothing to lose (the…

  • Darkness Revealed

    When I drive to work at night it’s a completely different experience than when I work a day shift. Even the nuclear power plant, normally a blight upon the landscape, looks beautiful. It is all lit up and floating in a sea of blackness like a nighttime cruise heading for the Bahamas. The traffic flow…