I AM KING

Hello. My name is King. I am a police “Sniffer” dog. I’m a pure-bred “Alsatian.” I say "Alsatian" because, as an American in the service of our country and municipality, I resent the connotations of, “German Shepherd.” It carries a whiff of World War Two, of armbands and leather-jacketed thugs, barbed-wire, search lights, interrogations, reprisals, and…

WITH LESTER YOUNG… SWING STAYED SWUNG.

ON BECOMING INSTANTLY COOL WITH THE PREZ & BIRD BIRTHDAY BROADCAST ON WKCR Oh, we are blessed that recording devices existed in these ancient days when these two, Lester Young, a/k/a "Prez," and the Yardbird himself, Charlie Parker, played and, even better, played together. And we benefit greatly that WKCR is playing music so good,…

JUST BACK IN TOWN

I wrote this on the plane back. It was Inspired by my seat neighbor, who popped three or four Ambien about three hours ago. A largish man in Bermudas, singlet and flip-flops, he snores with what could be described as symphonic relish. The highs remind one of the whine of leaf-blower; the troughs of his…

THE RAILING

He squeezed the railing tightly, the better to keep from launching himself over it and into the night below. She had said that thing that couldn’t be unsaid. Described him in a quite novel way, said that she had overlooked it out of love for him, that he was disgusting, a unique pig, a never-to-be-healed sore…

’14

"Europe today is a powder keg and the leaders are like men smoking in an arsenal. A single spark will set off an explosion that will consume us all. I cannot tell you when that explosion will occur, but I can tell you where. Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans will set it off." --…

QUARANTINE ISLAND

“You ain’t going anywhere, today. We ain’t.” “Why’s that?” “There’s no flights going to New York.” “Newark, then?” “Nix, man. No place. No where. No York, No Newark. No Wark. No… Body.” I shifted to the other desk. “What about you?” Still no. I ventured over to HeronAir. “You guys going?” “No can do, Sir.…

The New Janissaries

We get the word from the Turkish, Yenicheri, meaning “New Soldiers.” The Ottoman custom was to kidnap boys or to take them as tribute from the vassal lands of the Christian Balkans, to force them to convert to Islam, and to make of them the Sultan’s soldiers-elite, his guardians, until they rose high enough and…