William Lobb's Blog, page 11

The Myth and the Underbelly

This is not to diminish the horrible story of that twenty-two year old woman whose death has become something of a national obsession; I’m in offices all day, many have cable news on wall-mounted TVs. The reporting on this tragedy is well ingrained now into the twenty-four hour news cycle; breathless on-scene reporters sharing each […]

My Hometown

My hometown was a small city in the north and it always felt like mid-October. A place in-between, like summer just passed and winter not quite yet come, an odd and often uncomfortable twilight. A warm and colorful and dark and foreboding place. Full of life and lifeless. At times quiet and complex and terrifying […]

Trainsmoke

The summer always ended on his porch, the neighbor, Harry McCabe, down the dirt path dead-end by the water. Feet up on the surrounding stone and cement wall, leaning back in the kitchen chairs we’d drug out after eating the evening meal. Carefully surveying the woods for the skunks. They liked appear as the sun […]

I’m watching the talking heads justifying everything abou...

I’m watching the talking heads justifying everything about Afghanistan. Words about war and deaths and trillions spent and the twin towers and September 11, and Osama Bin-Ladin, and the Soviets, and the Taliban. My focus turned to the face of a boy, maybe eight or nine. He was standing next to an old woman wrapped […]

Weeds

It’s the way the rain dripped off the leaves on the summer morning after the evening’s thunderstorm, and the big and small puddles filled with worms and the way the air smelled clean again. The early breeze cooler than the wind of the past few weeks. Some of the leaves were yellowing now and even […]

Oceans of Black and Green

A hot day alright, and them flies were in my face before the sun rose over that ocean of black and green. The morning’s smell of eggs frying and bacon grease burning, and diesel exhaust and onions rotting in the crate. It was that same smell every morning. The cook girl was pretty, not real […]

August

Screaming August summer night bugs, take me back to the swamp as a boy. All I need is muddy knees and a dozen mosquito bites and I’d be home again. There was a world where a boy could be entertained and satisfied listening to the racquet of bush crickets and looking for constellations. Before air-conditioning, […]

This is why I test so often

I got asked, once again, why I’ve had so many covid tests. Simple answer: I’m not a sociopath. I don’t go to work in one building with one group of people every day. I can be inside and involved with people—face to face—in five different offices in any given day. Some days I work totally […]

Past the Tipping Point and Into the Abyss

To me, the most disconcerting thing about this years extreme weather is, to a person, be it a reasonable intelligent person or a self-identifying Republican, is this: when I say “I think we have crossed the once assumed long-off climate tipping point,” everyone agrees with me. Just the fact that anyone agrees with me about […]

The Right Stuff

Note to breathless reporter: multi-billionaires, hundreds of times over, who have billions and billions of dollars to spend on their toys are not: A ) pioneers B ) “everyday Americans” Every day Americans worry about the fact the cost of a loaf of bread has doubled in the past year, and eggs and milk. That […]