Jim Stitzel
Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of WordsExcerpts from Life
Speed Racer
Speed Racer driving toward a win. A lot of reviews of _Speed Racer_ hail it as yet another example of just how far the Wachowski brothers have fallen since _The Matrix_. But I have a hard time identifying anything about the flick to criticize. It's cheesy and campy,...
Contacts or Glasses
The downside to wearing contact lenses is that some days I forget which ones I'm wearing. So, when I reach up to rub an itch away from my eye, I either end up pushing my contact lens up under my eyelid (very uncomfortable) or leaving a big, greasy smear on my glasses....
Urine Humidity
It's rather disturbing when you step into your small horse barn to feed the animals and realize that it's humid, but that the _reason_ it's humid is because all that urine is evaporating. The thought that then runs through your head is, "Ewwww, I'm walking through a...
Fiction
Accusations
She leans against the sink and stares at the message scrawled in the dust on the mirror. Thank god it’s just dust this time, and not blood. Her arms and thighs are criss-crossed with the scissored scars of past blood-lettings. She breathes deeply, heavily, though...
Heartstone
It is a wondrous thing to hear your child’s heart beat for the first time. All those long hours of laboring and toiling over a workbench, all those days and weeks of tenderly, gingerly nudging gears and springs and cogs into place. All those blisters and burns and...
The Shelter
The shelter calls out to Eifan, and he is drawn toward it. A cool breeze blows in off the sea and with it a hint of a voice, as if a vapor. Almost that voice entices him away from his explorations, but he impatiently shrugs it off. There is mystery in that shelter,...