A Significantly Shortened Season

Ice fishing fanatics in central Wisconsin get on the ice from thin first ice to slushy last ice. The timeframe is usually late November until the middle of March. Less ardent and more cautious fishermen and fisherwomen require thick, consistently firm ice and only...

I Used to Work at Harvard

When I was 25 years old, I worked in the reading room of the Harvard Law School Library. I worked the evening shift at the circulation desk and spent an hour every night reshelving the dozens of case reporters* that law students used and then did not put back...

Cabin Fever?

My mind has been racing lately. I wake up in the middle of the night and mentally rework a piece of writing that I’d struggled with earlier in the day. Stories from my past, sometimes ones I didn’t even know I’d remembered, come to me from out of the blue. I...

A Touch of Gray

Manyu has beautiful salt and pepper hair. It is raven black highlighted with individual strands of white. She keeps it barely shoulder-length and carries a classic look that cannot be replicated in a hair salon. Last week she dyed it all black. Dying hair is an annual...

I Might Have That Kind of Face

As a young man, I might have had a face people trusted. Often I was told I needed to smile more, but smiles, at least fake ones, reveal an underlying dishonesty more than a face that might be described as emotionless. This fact often puts politicians in a bind. When...

No Dogs or Cats

I can’t remember who the author was, but I once read a book jacket bio that read, “And he has no dogs or cats.” I checked out the book from the library for that reason alone, and now wish I’d gone to a bookstore to buy it. That kind of sarcasm...
Steven Simpson