I added more photos of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to the photos page of my Columbine Guide. I also made the scans much larger on the Colu
I sure was a happy little toddler. I'm gushing in most of the pix, and my mom confirms I really was. For what it's worth, that's my sense of the period, too. I'm on the right, the youngest at this point. Five more kids to come. My older siblings seem pretty happy, too. And I remember that shirt with the doggie on it! I loved that thing. (I guess my younger brother wore it much later, so I'd keep seeing it again.) I'm a little younger in this next one, but happier. The caption from one of my siblings cracked me up. Hard to argue with that. :) (I forgot to hit Post on Thursday. Whoops. So it's kinda TBS. I'm OK with that.)
Right before the big snowstorm last Thursday, it was a gorgeous spring-like day in NYC, so I hopped on a citibike and rode to three favorite stores to sign Columbine copies: The Strand McNally Jackson Barnes & Noble Union Square All three ship worldwide, and I try to keep a copies on hand at some or all of them for you to order. (I still get regular requests, so I try to keep some available.) I keep the Buy section at the bottom of my Columbine page updated with their contact info, and when I last signed. Check there if you're interested. All the copies were the new expanded edition, except one copy at The Strand, which is a hardcover. (Great if you're into hardcovers, but know that it lacks
The second-coolest thing about growing an amaryllis, is that it takes all year. For a guy not known for patience, it's pretty damn cool to nurture this guy for 12 months and finally see him pop. Here he was Monday, right on the verge: And by Friday, he had popped wide open--first 2 of hopefully eight. If I recharged him enough, he's got to more coming on this stalk, so he'll soon be trumpeting in all 4 directions. And before those wilt, he'll send up a second stalk, with 4 more. Hopefully. Meanwhile, he's sure making my kitchen brighter.
I vividly recall the hardcover book's release last February. I watched her 20/20 Interview with Diane Sawyer intently, and stayed up unt
Today I uploaded Eric Harris' kind of shocking 'Hitmen For Hire' school assignment to The Columbine Guide. It's dated four months before the Columbine massacre. It accompanies the video of the same name that Eric made with Dylan Klebold, their most notorious production, in retrospect. At the time, it was easily written off as an absurdist spoof. This assignment is Eric's business plan for "Hitmen For Hire," including an overview of the "product," business organization, plans for fundraising and advertising. (See the TOC.) You can read his whole plan at the guide (it's a quick read), and there's a link to the video there, too. I am adding more material to The Columbine Guide each day, and I t
I totally overhauled my Columbine Guide site the past few weeks. It's got a new look, new org, and I fixed 17 years' worth of broken links. Now that it's easier to get to everything I'm adding more material every few days, especially from the big reservoir of the writings of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold about Columbine. Today I added Dylan Klebold's heartbreaking essay, "Senior Predictions." It's only 2 pages, yet captures an alternate life--what could have been, if he had not gone along with Eric Harris's plan to attack Columbine. (At the time Dylan wrote this, Eric and Dylan had already chosen the general time and place for the attack months earlier. But Dylan Klebold's journal indicates
Sue Klebold just posted a TED talk.* I haven't watched it yet. Bracing. (Update on that below.) I posted on FB, and already getting great responses from readers. Sue is pretty impressive, so I have little doubt that it's brace and candid and touching. Here's a quote from it: "The stubborn belief that we are somehow different, that someone we love would never think of hurting themselves or someone else, can cause us to miss what's hidden in plain sight." Update: I just watched. Really brave. Really powerful. And less painful (for me) than I expected. It was actually a relief because the emotional distance she has gone just in the past year--since she did the first round of interviews--is s
I just loaded up The Columbine Guide with Eric's sketches, and his school essay on "Nazi Culture"--which was very revealing in retrospect. That's a napalm tank on Eric's back, which was one of his many grandiose ideas. He laughed about creating human matchsticks running around, but of course he couldn't invent the flame-throwers he envisioned. He couldn't even get the Napalm recipe to work, thank God. The Nazi essay is revealing in very different ways. Read in retrospect, you can see how he is using the cover of the Nazis to turn in his own gory fantasies as school assignments. The opening paragraph about a stadium stacked to the top with dead bodies is his own fantasy and has nothing to do
I made good book progress today, so I took a 2-hour composting break. Just home, very tired. It's supposed to be last warm day for awhile, so glad I got it in. We have 4 huge bins going now, so it's interesting to see their progress at different stages. None are "flaming" now, though, which excites me the most. I'm hoping to keep them warm through the freezing temps the next few weeks. I'm puzzled at the worm population explosion in one of them. I've never seen anything like it. Grab a clump the size of a strawberry, and there can sometimes be 20 little worms there. Mommas must have laid eggs all over the place. It goes on and on like that. I hope I wasn't a terrible homewrecker splitting up
