“Before humans devised atomic clocks, a network of Earth-orbit satellites, and the Global Positioning System, we suffered a directional disadvantage compared to our scaly, furry, and feathered kin. But even with the best…

“My German-American parents were similarly afflicted with what the Germans call Zungensalat or ‘tongue salad.’ Mother was forever yelling at me to shut the scream door, and Father worried I wasn’t getting enough…

“So, exactly how do humans reproduce if we don’t bifurcate, pupate, or molt? I’m glad the answer to the overwhelming question of my adolescence was not left entirely to my parents.”—Skip Eisiminger Skip…

“In 1910, many in this country would have lynched heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson for not ‘knowing his place.’ When ‘the Big Smoke’ was stopped for speeding in rural Georgia, he told the…

“In 2013, the visual absurd seems to be losing its impact since its origins in Europe during World War II. Perhaps the best known work by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte is his…

  “I was born in 1941, so I cannot blame my ‘rage for order’ on the Depression. I’m a clean-desk man, certifiably neat, who orders the same thing every time he enters McDonald’s.…

“One night, when I was still in the army, I was driving the mid-shift out to our intercept site on the West German border to relieve the swing shift. On a remote but…

“Though I carried a can of dance wax to the high-school prom, I was ‘timber toes,’ ‘terminally Caucasian,’ and ‘a dog with four left feet.’ After the first slow dance, my date asked…

“Though Teddy Roosevelt’s life was spared when an assassin’s bullet was slowed by the 50-page speech tucked inside his vest pocket, 500 words saw Moses through the creation. As a writer, I harken…

“There’s a fair chance I was born with a slight buzz because no one ever warned Mother not to smoke or drink while she was pregnant. Indeed, many of my generation are here…