Epistemographer

…got a phone call from a private investigator yesterday that someone used my social secutiry number to cash a bad check at a Winn-Dixie in Alabama back in 2000. Even worse, apparently, someone else has been passing off my SSN as theirs since 1994.
Just spent an hour on the phoen with credit bureaus and the [...]

I’d always thought of Ithaca as untouched by the rampant spread of franchised stores (or, at the very least, I thought the town would be able to hold them at bay on the periphery of town, where the strip of fast food stores is). One of the quirky things about the town is that there’s [...]

Speaking of holiday events, I didn’t make it to Punkin’ Chunkin’ this year, but I’m happy to see that a new record was set of 4434 feet. That’s right, someone built a cannon to shoot a pumpkin more than 8/10’s of a mile…

I heard about Unsilent Night years ago, and have been wanting to go…I think this year I’ll actually make it!
Every year since 1992 I’ve presented Unsilent Night, an outdoor ambient music piece for an INFINITE number of boom box tape players. It’s like a Christmas carolling party except that we don’t sing, but rather carry [...]

So, it looks like the return of the automat ain’t gonna happen after all:

WASHINGTON – Residents of the city’s trendy Adams Morgan neighborhood will have to buy their toilet paper, shaving cream and middle-of-the-night sandwiches elsewhere now that McDonald’s has shut its 24-hour streetside vending machine, which the company had heralded as the convenience store of the future.

Wow…these are great. Really really great. Just go see for yourself.
(My favorite is “goals“)

Though there are wrath-of-God-force winds whipping down the streets and avenues of New York right now, I’m still venturing out in an hour or so for a series of readings that comprise a benefit for the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania…should be a great evening, especially so long as we stay indoors!

Since it’s past midnight here on the East Coast, I’ll bid a fond farewell to the Virtual Book Tour, as it moves on to James McNally’s Consolation Champs. I’ll be following the tour over the next week and most likely posting more responses as it hops around North America, so keep checking back…

[I've been working on this short radio essay about Orphan Thanksgiving dinnners. I thought it spoke to the way in which tribes formalize over time if they stay in the same location and keep their momentum up. -Ethan]
Not at Home for the Holidays
Years ago, when we were new to the city, we [...]