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Posts published by “Erik S. McMahon”

Snow

Pale-jointed knuckles grip the wheel. Squinting, trying to detect shapes of any kind beyond your windscreen. This rates as a full-bore white-out. Zero visibility. Now you’ve lost sight of those blurred red tail-lights that were…

Book Review: The Culinary Underbelly

It's tough enough for a stage comedian to make you laugh out loud; more remarkable still when a supposedly comic movie does so. Rarest of all is an author achieving such result in print. A…

They Said I’d Never Make A Fortune

So many cubes of braised tofu, countless Hunan broccoli specials; turned out they could legitimately be written off and called research. Frequenting of Sino-American eateries, from an IRS perspective, had been strictly recreational — until…

Rereading Charles Bukowski

There are those who have attained infamy — and flocks of admirers — through their flamboyant self-destructive pursuits, talent or no. Then there are gifted lunatics, always aflame, iron constitutions allowing them to create masterpieces…

Gettysburg

As I prepared last week for a tour of Civil War his­toric sites with forty history teachers from northwestern Minnesota, I looked at the itinerary and wondered if I would get anything out of touring…

Artificial Eyes

Back in the last century, a densely-populated island called Manhattan housed numerous curious enclaves. On a single block, every store might sell political memorabilia. Seeking Grover Cleveland victory banners, or “Eleanor, Start Packing: The Willkies…

Presidential Follicles

Voters don’t insist that presidential hair be life-like. It needn’t boast colors found in nature, but is expected to behave obediently, even opposing gale-force winds. Here in California, the archetype — the iconic coiffure —…

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