Derpetologist

The state fair had come once more to the dusty fairgrounds of a podunk town. Crowds of curious rubes and yokels from miles around came for the circus and other festivities. As exciting as seeing an elephant was for people, who in most cases were people who'd never...

Part 38

Once, Quint was sleepless. So I held him in my lap, and we watched TV together until the sign-off message came. The national anthem played, the Iwo Jima flag raising statue was shown, and Quint drifted off to sleep not long after. I did the same thing with Cathy a few...

Part 36.

The accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was a particularly depressing day for me. I became convinced that no new nuclear power plants would be built, and the existing ones would be shut down eventually. Something similar happened to warplanes for a...

Part 34

Part 33

Part 32

Part 31

Part 30

Part 29.

"From a statistical perspective, being a flip-flopper doubles your chances of winning. Machiavelli was not a mathematician." "I'm getting some croutons in case you plan on serving any more word salad tonight." Soon enough, it was the night of the debate. We were the...

Part 27

Part 26

Part 25

It dawned on me that my mom's cryptic note about leaving my dad for a better man was a subtle way of saying she was leaving him to be a nun. Nuns sometimes refer to themselves as brides of Christ. The mystery was unraveling fast. To gain access to the grounds, I...