tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-277662862011-08-07T01:40:52.607-05:00The totally irreverent and occasionally thoughtful musings of the writer, G. K. Wuori.G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.comBlogger601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-44576013977921075592009-04-07T09:07:00.001-05:002009-04-07T09:09:06.988-05:00

I voted in the elections last fall. It was an easy gambit considering how much was at stake for all my regions: local, state, national, the world. Regime change, always peaceful in this country, was vital. We’d officially acknowledged the economic recession; the stock market and so many retirement funds were tanking; we were fighting two wars, but, mostly, we’d had eight years of Evil in the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-43956430456497405432008-11-23T08:20:00.002-06:002008-11-23T08:23:57.831-06:00

It was only about six-thirty in the morning, a Sunday morning, as I came down the street and saw him. A cold morning, though, the temperature not quite twenty. Cold and clear and sleep-in quiet.He was about a half block ahead of me on Park Avenue and as he stepped off the curb he staggered for a moment and lost his balance. He didn’t fall, though, just took a few steps to get the balance back and

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-3604534297971172492008-11-05T09:09:00.002-06:002008-11-05T09:12:42.631-06:00

America wanted to blink.She wanted to blink really, really bad.There she was, toe-to-toe with fate, destiny, history, eye-to-eye as well and she wanted to say, “No, not yet. Not quite yet. It’s really not time.”In a race for president that was never not about race, she wanted to blink and say, “Okay. We’ve come very far. But not this time. Next time. Yes, definitely next time.”She didn’t,

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-53902555846291276982008-09-19T08:15:00.002-05:002008-09-19T08:19:08.709-05:00

Maybe, without any warning, the Iraq war has shifted to New York, specifically Wall Street, although that is a typically Americentric way of looking at an unbelievable financial meltdown that is shaking up the markets worldwide.It started about a year ago with “the housing crisis,” too many financial institutions lending too much money for mortgages that most likely could not be maintained. Real

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-13394389700214949422008-08-31T10:13:00.001-05:002008-08-31T13:13:03.121-05:00

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-69982947239183529612008-06-13T08:08:00.006-05:002008-06-13T08:22:02.815-05:00

With so much ghastly weather going on these days – fires, floods, tornadoes (with the hurricane season barely started) – you wonder sometimes when you’re going to get yours. It seems inevitable that those often-confused, often teary-eyed faces looking in wonderment over some disaster zone will be, eventually, replaced by yours.We came close last night, enough so to make me a believer in the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-56736380933466854732008-04-16T08:13:00.002-05:002008-04-16T08:16:03.092-05:00

Even though it’s a small bandwagon there is still plenty of room for anyone to hop aboard, even with their Sousaphone or cello.Of course we all know I’m speaking of the Al Gore bandwagon. Mr. Gore, as politician, is suffering way too much anonymity and it’s time to bring him out of the closet. The Democratic Party needs him. The American people need him.There has been some talk that, however the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-19826465783297535732008-03-24T09:11:00.003-05:002008-03-24T09:24:59.861-05:00

Here’s a little paste-up that I would normally just stick in the Carnage Catalog (my research file) and let it go at that, the catalog needing no comment and, really, building its own historical niche.But this one is special and comes from the New York Times:March 24, 2008 - A.P.’s Death Toll for Iraq War Reaches 4,000BAGHDAD (AP) -- The overall U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1300269952549341002008-03-10T08:41:00.003-05:002008-03-11T08:31:18.544-05:00

I’m not usually a cranky customer and I wasn’t that day. But I’d just poured several pounds of money into my gas tank via credit card and, when I punched the “receipt-yes?” button, the paper started down slowly, jammed into a wad, and a terse “out of service” appeared on the screen.I went inside for a receipt then, which the young man behind the counter cheerfully supplied. A bit frustrated, I

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-7146422364304294712008-02-15T09:11:00.003-06:002008-02-15T09:18:43.260-06:00

I like the word bucolic.DeKalb is sixty miles west of Chicago in northern Illinois. It’s the home of barbed wire and its high school teams are called the barbs. Back in the late 1800’s some political deals were struck that led to Northern Illinois University (it’s current name) being located in DeKalb.DeKalb is often described as bucolic, as some sort of rural wonderland that exists for the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-53847344527229989722008-01-25T14:13:00.000-06:002008-01-25T14:16:43.033-06:00

A simple story is sometimes the best story, with this story starting out on a wretchedly cold winter day. About ten below zero.The car wouldn’t start. How simple is that? How common is that bond with the rest of humanity?Anyway, a jump from my wife’s Accord to my eighteen-year old Civic got the latter going, needing the jump, though, a puzzle since the battery was only a little over three years

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-30604135414680974992008-01-04T13:52:00.000-06:002008-01-04T13:55:40.599-06:00

Sometime around four or five years ago I was in my kitchen working on supper when the telephone rang. This was before we had our phone number put on the Do Not Call list and so I assumed it was a telemarketer – calling at an inconvenient time as usual.To the contrary, the woman identified herself as being part of some Chicago area wing of the Democratic Party – perhaps Cook County, perhaps

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-18920755533244223972007-11-15T08:24:00.000-06:002007-11-15T08:29:31.801-06:00

Amazing things these bodies, human bodies, and what we put them through. If it’s not enough that we expect them to move, bend, twist, turn, stoop, jump, walk, and run for eighty odd years, well, we then subject them to all manner of recreational challenges.It’s simply stunning to watch any example of contact sports and see the abuse of the body, let alone to see those bodies pick themselves up

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-76521968899249723322007-10-21T08:40:00.000-05:002007-10-21T08:47:46.225-05:00

Make no mistake about it, there’s still fighting and dying going on. This war, though, waxes and wanes in our collective hyperactive consciousness.We are concerned right now about the coming primary campaign and wonder if it all wasn’t started way too early. A wash of candidates flows over us with every touch of any medium: television, the web, newspapers, newsmagazines – Clinton, Giuliani, Obama

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-52424106618977733322007-10-06T14:45:00.000-05:002007-10-06T14:54:48.125-05:00

They’ve made it a family affair, enlisting mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters, and friends for the babysitting. Something of a public affair, too, with the occasional blog detailing this or that aspect of the training; public, as well, in that people at their work places know about the project – this systematic, intense, disciplined, and so terribly lonely preparation for running in the Chicago

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-79924789645587205642007-09-15T09:22:00.000-05:002007-09-15T09:26:42.144-05:00

This week we had a great whipping of the national egg whites. A marvelous froth came to be, a mountain of alabaster – except that biting into it you discovered it was all air that began to collapse pretty quickly.Essentially, General Petraeus, stoutly affirming that he is his own man and speaks only for himself, said we must keep on keeping on in Iraq. Then the White House pops in with, My, isn’t

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-30425494990143967592007-09-10T13:39:00.000-05:002007-09-10T13:45:34.938-05:00

I’d thought about including the phone numbers of real people here so that, when you get to your hotel, you could call them and maybe talk about how lonely you get when you travel. How it’s work, yes, and altogether better than being in the office, but you could tell them about the time you spent a Saturday morning in Connecticut at a supermarket just watching couples shop, envying even the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-17355299320918413372007-08-25T08:28:00.000-05:002007-08-29T07:35:01.626-05:00

I pass this sign maybe three or four times a week. It’s only about a block from my home, and every time I pass it I wonder, What do they really mean?As a generic statement, “pray for the unborn” is about like “pray for mankind.” There’s some thoughtful sentiment there but it doesn’t really mean anything. Unborn what might be the first question. Truly, there is much that has yet to be born; indeed

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-70805013215559978932007-08-11T08:27:00.000-05:002007-08-11T08:34:10.787-05:00

Someday I’d like to go up to that man who just hit his 755th home run and ask him what he’s going to do with his life, when he’s going to settle down and get serious. You know, make something of himself and all.∞∞∞Do drive-by shooters ever wonder about the gas mileage of their cars?∞∞∞‘It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,’ doesn’t work if you’re a lobster sitting in a pot of boiling water.∞∞∞The

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-20864367971101699382007-07-31T10:03:00.000-05:002007-07-31T10:14:22.128-05:00

As I’ve said before, I’m often beset with a sense of great failure as I try to lay down the tenor, tone, and timbre of these times.Truthfully, hardly any of my fellow citizens thinks a whole lot about this war, although the polls are showing that when such thoughts as there are get polled the overwhelming sentiment is that we are accomplishing nothing and need to get out of Iraq (and with the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-71998966569879614782007-06-28T13:23:00.000-05:002007-06-28T13:36:43.122-05:00

He called it virginal, my dentist did, meaning only untouched. Which is not to say it was innocent. In fact, like any virgin it wiggled a bit and caused a certain kind of swelling. Root canal, my dentist concluded, calmly writing out a referral to an endodontist.I write this because I think root canal has gotten a bad rap. For those who ordinarily simply fear dentistry, the words root canal raise

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-80190182034253239722007-06-06T09:15:00.001-05:002007-06-06T09:49:09.692-05:00

A terrific new anthology has just been published by Bottom Dog Press. It's titled Bar Stories and is edited by Nan Byrne. It's a marvelous collection of stories set in and around the bar, the inn, the tavern, the beer joint. Of course you'll want to read my story, "Sometimes The Bones Are Very Busy," right away, but you can only do that by clicking on the Bottom Dog link above and ordering the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-13305309862723563212007-05-30T08:48:00.000-05:002007-05-30T08:52:08.970-05:00

Some bosses make you grow while others do all they can to stifle you. This is a truth of the workplace that is hardly novel – until it becomes relevant to you and your workplace.My first job, the sort that paid an actual salary with benefits and even promised not only a career but a future, was as an assistant philosophy professor at Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.With a new Ph.D.

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-19879127049383329052007-05-22T08:55:00.000-05:002007-05-22T09:00:48.228-05:00

A few days ago a young Iraqi girl was dragged from her house by her brothers and friends and stoned to death in the center of town. On the video she can be seen on the ground looking terribly frightened, then cowering into a fetal position as the first stones are felt. At one point a large stone hits her head and she stops moving.It seems as though every time one encounters an atrocity like this

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-13619130859173516092007-05-07T09:39:00.000-05:002007-05-07T09:54:40.179-05:00

Sometimes the earth gives us odd signals.We look at ourselves as a mass of worry – polar ice caps melting, exploding people killing with shrapnel and body parts, politicians as fearful as an old woman locked in her house and fearing rape, oil prices that gouge our income while blinding us to the size of the behemoths we drive, our ports vulnerable to terrorists, our food supply at the mercy of an

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-57326004397013850782007-04-20T08:38:00.000-05:002007-04-20T08:42:20.874-05:00

I took the train into Chicago that day, then a taxi from the Northwestern station (a.k.a. Ogilvie Transportation Center) to a nice hotel on Wacker Drive. With all expenses paid by my publisher and a reading scheduled for that night, it was all turning into quite a nice day.The occasion for the reading was the thirtieth-issue celebration of the literary magazine, Other Voices, published in Chicago

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-21833934435231308982007-04-10T08:41:00.000-05:002007-04-10T08:49:44.027-05:00

A young boy in Connecticut – Justin Kavadas, age 10 – is responsible for a piece of legislation now working its way through the state legislature. The bill in question would ban smoking in cars with children present. The whole story, though, at least as reported in the news, sounds a little weird.First, it begins to seem as though this young man has simply learned the art of grandstanding at an

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-44181353634511915492007-03-25T10:02:00.000-05:002007-03-25T10:08:19.920-05:00

As everyone pretty much knows by now, a huge number of pet food brands – all produced by the same manufacturer – have been found to be contaminated with rat poison. Animals have died as a result, mostly beloved family pets: cats and dogs.Anyone who has ever had a dog or cat knows how sad this kind of situation can be. The critters become a part of our lives and our hearts, and those hearts break

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-52423042659435823492007-03-13T08:16:00.000-05:002007-03-13T08:23:20.347-05:00

Once again it is time to put the finger on the pulse, the thermometer up the butt (or in the ear) to find the mood of America as it tries to live up to its wartime glory.Needlessly cynical there, that last comment. Maybe it’s just that things are feeling quite flat right now – could be the end of winter, the not-quite hereness of spring.The first conviction of one of Cherub’s officials has been

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-81354205781302362942007-03-02T08:43:00.000-06:002007-03-02T08:45:55.643-06:00

The principal of Jefferson High School in Rockford, Illinois – not far from where I live – got himself into the news yesterday with a story about how he changed the grades of a number of students from F to D.Students interviewed on television were predictably outraged, claiming that it demeaned the student body and was unfair to students who had to work for their grades. Interestingly, one

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-55345268245804751352007-02-15T10:14:00.000-06:002007-02-15T10:19:08.659-06:00

We need to be very careful now.The First Bush held a news conference yesterday and said he knew that Iran was supplying various armaments to insurgent groups in Iraq. He also said he’d have to do something about it because, as Commander-in-Chief, it’s his job not so much to wage war with Iran but to protect U.S. troops.From Bush to Cheney to SECDEF Gates, the litany has been the same these past

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-49565469055416809242007-02-04T15:30:00.000-06:002007-02-04T15:40:04.391-06:00

We wiggle and jiggle as the First Bush decides he hasn’t done enough killing yet to insure his legacy as a great, wonderful, much-loved, kind, compassionate, wise, and generous president.Our new democratic congress is getting antsy about this plan to send as many as forty-thousand more troops to Iraq. But as yet no one has come forth to say, “Mr. President, bring our troops home now!”A large

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-67748287574923482732007-01-29T08:32:00.000-06:002007-01-29T08:46:01.058-06:00

This week I’ve been dogsitting for my daughter and son-in-law’s greyhound, Charm. Every morning we leave the house at around six for a good walk, usually returning about forty-five minutes later. Because it’s quite cold right now, and because greyhound’s have short hair and are pretty thin-skinned, she’s bundled up pretty well in a fleece-lined coat. She also wears a fleece snood that covers her

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-33869117378189765612007-01-18T08:17:00.000-06:002007-01-18T08:22:07.015-06:00

So he smokes, we hear – this Barack Obama, senator from my own state of Illinois and all but official presidential candidate. Critics take note: this could be the big one.Smokers, of course, have become a great demonized class second, perhaps, only to pedophiles in public scorn. In town after town and state after state laws have been enacted not so much in the name of public health, but more in

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-4165871187916932612007-01-11T09:13:00.000-06:002007-01-11T12:49:30.607-06:00

So it’s to be another twenty-one thousand troops then. That’s what the First Bush said last night.Gosh, he said, mistakes have been made and the responsibility rests with me. But we need to prop up this paper doll we’ve made, this Humpty and Dumpty of Sunni and Shia parts, maybe parts ordered from Sears, too, or Amazon.com.Is it truly noble to stay the course when the course clearly leads to hell

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-64675842822764788912007-01-05T08:05:00.000-06:002007-01-05T08:25:40.551-06:00

As historic days go, yesterday wasn’t bad.Following last weekend’s syrupy goodbye to the mediocre Gerald Ford (his death a bit upstaged by the hanging of Saddam Hussein), we installed not only the 110th Congress, and not only a Congress that has wrested control from the nasty Republicans, but we also installed the first woman as Speaker of the House – Nancy Pelosi.In celebration, the Dow Jones

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1167249551841247232006-12-27T13:53:00.000-06:002006-12-27T13:59:11.850-06:00

I don’t know what to think about the death sentence for Saddam Hussein now that his final appeal has been lost. On the whole I tend to think that “an eye for an eye” justice only increases the blindness in the world.On the other hand, he killed a lot of people. We’ll euthanize a dog if it only bites more than three people.On the third hand, it is said we could learn a lot from such a man. I don’t

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1166888639549570732006-12-23T09:40:00.000-06:002006-12-23T09:43:59.576-06:00

It almost sounds restful, this notion of a surge. Like a big wave picking you up and depositing you gently on the beach. Like the rush of a good drink or a great meal or a moment of sexual climax.Sometimes surges can be risky. If the crowd surges people can be hurt. If your car engine surges control can be lost. And who has not had to go around resetting every electrical device in the house

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1166539803835817662006-12-19T08:44:00.000-06:002006-12-19T08:50:03.853-06:00

So at least one of them has died now, frozen in a snow cave atop Mt. Hood in Oregon, and the other two are still missing. Their fate has been in the news since around December 10, and we’ve seen their tearful mothers and fathers and sisters and wives confessing faith and their confidence in Jesus and their confidence in the virtual army of searchers scouring the mountain.I’ve always been a bit

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1165334182308464402006-12-05T09:52:00.000-06:002006-12-05T09:56:22.326-06:00

We are a behemoth, the rhinoceros in the Port-a-John, so turning around is not easy.But America is turning around.The Commission On Getting Us Out Of This Fucking Mess headed by James Baker is issuing its report this week. The First Bush is already giving it a polite cold shoulder, but it’s coming out and the country will read it and find in it all manner of reasons why we should be making war on

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1163082945621659702006-11-09T08:18:00.000-06:002006-11-09T08:40:56.406-06:00

Contemplating Changing The Name Of This Book To ‘Chebu’Author's Note: For some time now I've been writing a book on the Iraq war titled, Cherub: An Iraqi War Diary. It is not so much about the war as it is about the American people - their moods, doings, and odd ways both preceding and during a time of war. What follows is a reflection on one aspect of that book.I don’t know, ‘Chebu’ has kind of

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1162650166230785752006-11-04T08:14:00.000-06:002006-11-04T08:22:46.240-06:00

How nice it would be to say that the big news this week was a whoppingly joyful Hallowe’en where legions of kids roamed the neighborhoods scoring enough candy to last them for … days.Alas, we only had twenty-seven of the devils and ended up with a freezerful of enough candy to last me for … weeks.That’s not to say that scary things didn’t happen this week.The military, for example, announced that

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1160489069343134312006-10-10T08:57:00.000-05:002006-10-10T09:04:29.363-05:00

This, then, is how it began – a Saturday night phone call from Greg Herriges of the English Department at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois.I had been invited, months before, to give a reading at the college on October 9th as part of a reading series hosted annually by the college and StoryQuarterly magazine. A year previous, I’d had a story in StoryQuarterly that the editor, Minnie Marie

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1159364161933876532006-09-27T08:25:00.000-05:002006-09-27T08:37:46.516-05:00

Now and then I have been accused of creating oddball names for many of the characters in my fiction. As a criticism, I suppose the implication is that an odd name is a cover for an uninteresting character. At the very least, so it is said, an odd name distracts the reader.For as much as I have had my share of published Jims and Sharons and Jacks and Donnas and Alices, I would still bow to said

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1158090051793651012006-09-12T14:35:00.000-05:002006-09-12T14:40:51.806-05:00

I found this letter on the street one day while I was taking a walk. Other than changing the names, it is here unedited.Sept. 2, 2006Baby,Hey babe what’s goin on? So how is school and everything at home going for you? I hope everything is going good for you at home and I hope your not fuckin up in school cause if you are then once I get out your gonna be doin your homework or I’m not gonna take

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1156686104285028522006-08-27T08:37:00.000-05:002006-08-27T08:41:44.406-05:00

Once again I find myself all purple over a corporate scam. I was annoyed enough when my Verizon Long Distance plan at $1.50 a month went up to $2.50 two months after we signed on. We don’t use their long distance anyway so it was just a matter of paying to have the long distance service available. Still, there was a slight taste of the old bait-and-switch in my mouth.But then just this past week

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1156167124275186742006-08-21T08:21:00.000-05:002006-08-21T08:34:53.420-05:00

I’ve lost faith in my hometown because they decided to put a likeness of Cindy Crawford on a new town mural instead of me.The mural was painted on the side of a tavern in the heart of downtown DeKalb – my birthplace and only a few miles from where I live now in northern Illinois. It presumes to celebrate the hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the town with a panorama of notables.Please, no –

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1155821885511240022006-08-17T08:33:00.000-05:002006-08-17T08:38:05.520-05:00

So I turn on Channel 13 to watch the news and my favorite weatherman is gone. No announcement; no best wishes on a new gig – just gone, poof, disappeared.Perhaps it doesn’t matter since the new weatherman is quite good. Knowledgeable, good delivery. Doesn’t make too much out of the weather being the be-all and end-all of life as we know it. Then he’s gone. Disappeared.I once put a recipe for

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1154547506736381012006-08-02T14:24:00.000-05:002006-08-02T15:23:16.263-05:00

HEATAlthough the heat has been on nearly everyone’s mind lately, one of the most disappointing things about it has been the lack of colorful commentary.Instead of our weathermen saying things like, “It’s hotter than a mugger’s credit card,” they simply keep giving us these little moral lessons about drinking plenty of fluids (but not colas or alcohol) and not leaving the baby or the dog inside a

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1153401714296672452006-07-20T08:16:00.000-05:002006-07-20T08:21:54.306-05:00

Many years ago in the early sixties John F. Kennedy made a vow that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. While the goal itself was exciting, along with a great galumph to the national consciousness, something hugely more noble lay beneath the surface of that effort: we would explore, and we would learn, the secrets of the universe.Given the idealistic tenor of the times

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1152192674168074902006-07-06T08:22:00.000-05:002006-07-06T08:35:24.816-05:00

Two of the world’s most feared terrorists are dead.Abu al-Zarqawi and Kenneth Lay both managed to escape the world’s retribution, one by being at the wrong end of a U.S. 500-pound bomb, the other while on vacation and awaiting a probable life sentence in prison.Of Zarqawi, not much remains to be said. As a youthful thug, he enjoyed a life of petty crime. In his mature years, he oversaw the deaths

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1151157385245399862006-06-24T08:41:00.000-05:002006-06-24T08:56:25.256-05:00

You don’t see many hitchhikers anymore. In fact, I could probably say you don’t see any hitchhikers anymore and get away with it. Anyway, their absence has a kind of melancholy air about it.It used to be that nearly any trip either to the edge of town or out of town would expose you to at least one or two colorful characters: at least one dude, smoking, often wearing a leather jacket;

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1150557870571258602006-06-17T10:17:00.000-05:002006-06-17T10:24:30.583-05:00

Sometimes I get a little fuzzy on the money people make and especially on the inequality that always shakes out in the process. Americans, of course, hardly ever think it’s wrong to make so much money you can’t even figure out how many zeroes to use in calculating your annual take. We think it’s some sort of a God-given right that if we’re cute enough, clever enough, smart enough, or lucky enough

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1149949203247408002006-06-10T09:13:00.000-05:002006-06-10T09:26:05.766-05:00

Of all the questions I’ve gotten in public, none is as vexing as “Why do you write?” I’ve learned some of the flip answers like “because I have to” or “the Muse just makes me do it,” and that usually satisfies an audience, especially those who know that it’s something of an impossible question to begin with.But it is a good question. The writer puts words to paper (or disk) and they might be

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1148649007402609332006-05-26T07:54:00.000-05:002006-05-26T08:12:18.106-05:00

The following is an excerpt from a book I’m writing about the government of the United States. It is a funny book.Advice For The Uncommonly GovernedPreambleThe United States Government is the people acting on their own behalf. Consider some of the goofs and foibles of the American people (rudeness, attention-deficit disorder, pragmatism, profanity) and you will see the government writ big, very

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1148241136575723412006-05-21T14:43:00.000-05:002006-05-21T14:52:16.586-05:00

I find myself almost mad enough to spit to hear that my senate, my senators, my employees out there in Washington have voted to make English the official language of the United States of America.It reminds me of my Finnish grandfather who may have known some English but I never heard it, or my Finnish grandmother who had a wonderful smile but whose English was the English of the complaint, the

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1147721016653497352006-05-15T14:14:00.000-05:002006-05-15T14:23:36.663-05:00

My local newspaper has developed something of a fascination with the latest incarnation of the vanity press: all those print-on-demand things coming out of iUniverse, AuthorsHouse, and many others. For those of you not quite in the know – a “real” publisher pays you to publish your book. If your book sells, they’ll pay you even more and, of course, they start making money, too. A vanity press,

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1147441421022787722006-05-12T08:42:00.000-05:002006-05-13T08:32:20.806-05:00

Sometimes, when I find myself feeling really “Bushed,” I remind me that I lived through the imperial reign of Richard M. Nixon and Spiro Agnew. The election of those two icons of nastiness fairly persuaded me that maybe democracy wasn’t such a good idea.Agnew was a sleazy, name-calling student-basher (during the days of student protests over Vietnam), and Nixon came across as the sort of man you

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1147272907547575372006-05-10T09:50:00.000-05:002006-05-10T09:55:07.556-05:00

Can’t get near itCan’t touch itAs tense asA lady drinkerGiven noticeNow a quantityOf love, theExceptionalSadness ofInfinite thingsLeaves fly likeToy soldiers,The world fullOf lead dustFrom old bulletsCities all becomeParchment palacesOld writing saysHere! This place!Rain falls on inkThe river is aStatic roar andThere is talk againOf asking forIts silence

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27766286.post-1147116490122822812006-05-08T14:11:00.000-05:002006-05-10T10:11:19.266-05:00

This is the blog of the writer G. K. Wuori - an opportunity for me to vent, orate, declaim, simmer, or just babble on about those things that are important to me without the intervention of editors, critics, or, most significantly, my muse. She doesn't know I'm here and, while she has served me well in writing and publishing two books and over sixty short stories, she is often such a demanding

G.K.Wuorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15364308597214962790noreply@blogger.com0