Ad Hudler's Blog, page 41

Those weird emails from African prisoners...

Okay, I'm sure many of you have received emails from anonymous African women who say they are enslaved. But this one caught my attention, largely because of the last few lines. (I have a weakness for sentences with the phrase "blood child".) I quote directly (These are not my typos):

"Dearest one, I am writing to let you know that there is something very much important which I will like us to discuss and it is all about my life and my situation here in Abidjan Cote d' Ivoire. In a brief i am Mi

Those weird emails from African prisoners ...

Okay, I'm sure many of you have received emails from anonymous African women who say they are enslaved. But this one caught my attention, largely because of the last few lines. (I have a weakness for sentences with the phrase "blood child".) I quote directly (These are not my typos):

"Dearest one, I am writing to let you know that there is something very much important which I will like us to discuss and it is all about my life and my situation here in Abidjan Cote d' Ivoire. In a brief i am Mi

A Movie to Watch...

Make sure you rent "Young @ Heart" from Netflix. Don't let the awful title scare you away as it nearly did me. The film is a documentary about a group of old folks in their 70s and 80s who are a singing troupe ... only the songs they sing are not what you'd expect: "Stayin' Alive", "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", "I Wanna Be Sedated", and "Forever Young" by Bob Dylan. The story shows you plenty of their poignant and funny performances as it follows the lives and relationships of these actors, t

More on the white-trash-family-from-hell that has moved onto my block ...

If you didn't catch Chapter One of this saga, click here. Now ... on to Chapter Two.

The darling little boys -- and it's the chubby blond one that is the truly evil child -- seem to have been banned from their go-cart-jeep-thingy. Some neighbors told me it was shut up in the garage after they were caught trying to run down a pedestrian on the street.

Also ... apparently the family has two killer dogs that run loose on the street. Two people have watched these dogs maul their cats to death. The fat

Why Novelists Drink Too Much

This from an article in The Economist, which quotes Donald Goodwin's book, "Alcohol and the Writer": "Writing involves fantasy; alcohol promotes fantasy. Writing requires self-confidence; alcohol bolsters confidence. Writing is lonely work; alcohol assuages loneliness. Writing demands intense concentration; alcohol relaxes.

Thank God! I knew there was good reason explaining my favorite afternoon activity.
Then again, couldn't you replace the word "writer" with "plumber" or "forest ranger" and ge

When reviewers go TOOOO Far ...

Good day. Please consider this last line from The New Yorker magazine's review of the movie "500 Days of Summer": ...Forcedly cute, clumsily mechanical, overdetermined, and undernourished, this ostensibly soulful romance is a plastic void."

Don't you think that's unnecessarily bitchy and mean? As an author I have to deal with negative reviews at times, and I'll tell you what: reviews like the one above just plain hurt my feelings. There's a difference between being critical and being mean. I thi

Some questions I have about counterfeit money ...

Specifically, I want to know more about those little magic markers that cashiers use to scribble on any bill larger than a 20. Evidently, the scribble is supposed to turn black if the bill is fake. So ...

First question: What would happen if they discovered that it was actually counterfeit money, passed unwittingly on to me by another merchant? Could I be arrested? Has this ever happened to anybody?

Second question: Don't you feel a little insulted when they do this in front of you? And is it my i

My Head is Relaxed: Chapter 2

So the first of my relaxation tapes came in the mail yesterday, and I tried it out, hoping to find ways to lessen my uptight nature. Apparently, I HAVE BEEN BREATHING INCORRECTLY! The path to relaxation is through deep belly breaths. Your chest shouldn't even move when you're lying down, breathing ... only your belly. When your chest moves it shows you're using the top of your lungs exclusively, and apparently this is not conducive for inner peace.

I have also been trying this in normal standing-

My Head is Relaxed ... My Head is Relaxed

Okay, so if you've read any of my novels with the character Linc Menner you'll correctly guess that Ad Hudler is a little uptight and anxiety-ridden at times. Seriously, I sleep horribly. My dreams usually involve losing something or someone and a deadline that I am always missing (flights, assignments, etc.)

Consequently, I grind the hell out of my teeth at night. Have been doing this for years, and it's really getting bad now. I've tried two different orthotic mouthpieces to help, but they're d

The next day ...

I love eating leftovers for breakfast, especially takeout Chinese, Indian, Italian ...

But there's one type of food that, for some reason, does not reheat well and taste good the next day: Thai. And I'm not sure why.

(I'm a poet and I didn't know it.)