ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

QUOTATIONS

  • Hardboiled Coffee Night

    The attendant filled my cup and made change without waking, moving as if his starched coat was holding him up. I sat at the shining enameled counter, slowly burning my throat with coffee and thinking with a chilly three o’clock brain. Ruth was clear, of murder at any rate. But the Schneiders’ alibi was at… Read more

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Hank Aaron on Failure

    “Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.” – Hank Aaron Read more

  • SHORT STORY REVIEW: “Bread Upon the Waters” by A.A. Milne

    One of the most enjoyable things about reading short story anthologies is the number of pleasant surprises you get. In the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (the 1920s & 1930s) everyone who wrote in Britain tried their hand at mysteries. Even Winnie-the-Pooh’s famous creator, A.A. Milne. Milne’s short story “Bread Upon the Waters” is an… Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee Morning

    I dressed quickly and followed her into the kitchen. She had coffee ready and handed me a cup, knowing by my face that something was wrong. She didn’t ask. She waited until I was ready. I said, “I had a friend who was killed last night. I know how, I know why and I know… Read more

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Jerry on the Dead

    “We’re like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.” ~Jerry Garcia Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee & Cigarette

    It wasn’t completely light when I woke up again, but the foggy, half-light that sometimes lingers along the coast in August. I got up and put some coffee water on and got under the shower. Pain leaped through my stomach and my head felt like a coconut that had fallen from a tall tree. I… Read more

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Merton on Consumerism

    “We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the… Read more

  • Hard-Boiled Coffee Beans

    “There was a pot of coffee perking in the kitchen. Real coffee. The aroma reminded me of a little store I used to know in Newark as a kid, where fresh coffee beans always spilled out of a grinder into the window. It was the only street in my neighborhood that didn’t stink.” (cf. Vorzimmer,… Read more

  • Catchers and Pitchers Report

    This week catchers and pitchers report to Spring Training. The long, dark days of winter are coming to an end. For baseball fans, Spring Training means hope and possibility. Here are some of my favorite quotes about Spring Training. Spring training means flowers, people coming outdoors, sunshine, optimism and baseball. Spring training is a time… Read more

  • Hardboiled Coffee Problems

    You know something? It wasn’t so bad having a cup of coffee with her. I mean this was the first time we were alone together and she had a very sweet way about her. But what the hell, I had my own problems. (cf. The Best of Manhunt 2 (p. 398). Stark House Press. Kindle… Read more