R.R. Hicks's Blog, page 5

Dogs in Coats

Originally posted on Forlorn Hope Publishing:
Running by the Farmington River this afternoon, among dogs in coats and people in sparkling new running shoes and clothes, a few things popped in now that 2014 is out of its misery. Any year that takes Tony Gwynn, Robin Williams, Jann Hooks, Elizabeth Pena, Harold Ramis, & Philip Seymour…

Just to Be Fair

The video below is going viral, you’ve probably already seen it several times – a guy in New York took up the Ellen Dance Challenge and decided that, as a black man, it’d be great to do it behind a bunch of really, really white cops. The results were predictable. As you can see. Invective raining […]

Bullies: And the Bullying Bullies Who Bully (Part One)

That’s the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority . . .       ~ Joseph Heller, Catch-22 So. Bullies. So many shapes and sizes. So many weapons. But, when finally confronted with a power or powers greater than they bullies can only go in few directions – dog presenting stomach abject submission; fleeing; […]

Bully, Bully ….

I spent a few weeks last month putting together a nonfiction book proposal for 2 Soups & a Fish. These things – book proposals not soup or fish – are almost exhaustively complete, a combination marketing/business plan and in-depth synopsis. I spent a lot … lot … of time pouring through my journals, notes, loose […]

Because They Can . . .

The New York Times published a, well, amazing piece yesterday: At Rikers Island, Union Chief’s Clout Is a Roadblock to Reform. It’s ostensibly about the head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, a political bully right out of Tammany Hall –  except he’s black and it’s 2014. The article fits snugly into everything published over the past months […]

The Alanis Morissette CIA Torture Report Award of the Day

The Alanis Morissette CIA Torture Report Award of the Day goes to – the Dennis & Callahan Morning Show on WEEI in Boston. A twenty minute comic routine revolving around rectal feeding; openly and loudly doubting that keeping someone up for 180 hours is torture; finished off with ‘the bastards deserve it anyways’ until they smoothly, […]

Of Grand Juries and Justice and The Great Santini

I’m exhausted – mentally and physically – by the endless jabbering about the recent grand jury decisions in Ferguson and Staten Island.  “The grand jury was flawed”; “the grand jury was wrong”; “the grand jury did a great job,”; yada, yada, yada. The public’s general complete and utter misunderstanding of what a grand jury does […]

Happy Birthday Johnathan Swift

It’s Jonathan Swift’s birthday …. We could use a crazy Irish writer like him right now to offer A Modest Proposal on everything from Ferguson to, well, everything. “It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all […]

Tweeter, Justice and Ferguson

Weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals.  – Homer Simpson I did something I almost never do around midnight Monday night – I commented on breaking news using a hashtag. #FergusonDecision. I never do that, for many reasons. But, I watched St. Louis County Prosecutor McCullough’s presentation with such . . . incredulity . . . I […]

Herzog, Hamilton Burger’s Revenge, and My 2 Soups

I just spent ten days putting together a nonfiction book proposal for 2 Soups & a Fish, my narrative of prison, the criminal justice system and, the ultimate target – sports talk radio and NFL pre-game shows (how I get there is a real hoot). Those ten days really brought me back as I flipped through […]