WRITING CLIPS
Additional published work available on request
SparkNotes Study Guide of “Lamb to the Slaughter”
published 2022
All portions of the analysis of Roald Dahl's short story - Summary, Characters, Literary Devices, Quotes, and Further Study/in Context - are authored by me (with the exception of the Historical Context section.)
House of upsets
published
Carousel
– arts & culture newspaper
OFF THE BEAT column
July 2019
Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs is one of the gems of New York state - and not a particularly hidden one. What makes Saratoga "off the beat” is the quirkiness of horse racing itself.
The stunning turn-around in this year's Kentucky Derby, with the first disqualification due to a flub during the race ever in its 145 year history, resulted in a whopping 65 to 1 longshot being declared the winner. That race in May in Kentucky threw emphasis, for fans and non-fans alike, on the perpetual truth that in all of life - and especially in horseracing - it's always anything-can-happen-day.
Sometimes nicknamed the House of Upsets, Saratoga Race Course releases its racing season from the starting gate this year on July 11...
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...If a horse you thought you were going to favor turns out to look droopy or perturbed, etc., you might want to change your mind - and there's still time at that point to trot over to the parimutuel window and smack down your bet on one who looks more like he's got game.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, let me point out that one feature of gambling in horseracing that is delightfully different from most gambling in a casino is, in horseracing, patrons are not betting against the house. They are betting against the perceptions, instincts, and calculations of all the other bettors.
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...That's a good place to start handicapping (calculating a horse's probability of winning) if a novice wants to move beyond choosing a horse because the name is appealing or because a pointed finger, descending through the air in front of closed eyes, landed on the name of a random mount in the program.
Don Demauro at 80
published
Triple Cities Carousel
– arts & culture newspaper
August 2016
…When asked about the human figure as a recurring image in his work, often in fragmented forms, Don responds, “We deal with the figure in figural terms.” Then he lets his thoughts putt-putt out in words that may, or may not, congeal into a communicative mass. “The figural is the broad aspect of,” he pauses, “what the figure is in its life and living as opposed to being the body… let’s see. If, you know, it goes back to Descartes and mind and body. I mean, you’re always,” he pauses again, “the body’s interesting, I mean,” and here, finally, the thoughts congeal: “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was born into a certain kind of family. My mother had a lung removed when I was about 8 years old. That was like 72 years ago so that wasn’t an easy operation. She had to work hard. She worked at the local Air Force base because my father,” he says parenthetically, “that’s a whole other story… She would regurgitate; there’d be bottles of blood and they’d be [congregated] on her nightstand. So that gave me a really potent sense of the body.”
Does beauty play a part in his work? DeMauro says he has “mulled over” that a lot. He then goes in circles to touch on Francisco Goya, darkness, the poet Neruda, the fact that “beauty” is an awkward word - and ends up never answering the question.
Motel Escapade
published
Horizon
– Canadian humor magazine
April 2009
I was just trying to support the “little guy.” I never meant to end up in the kind of motel room in which most people would say they wouldn’t be caught dead.
***
The TV, an advertised featured amenity, was a massive, ancient, wooden-framed console that was disproportionate to the cramped room. It lurked awkwardly near the bed. The bed itself looked okay; the sheets looked clean (I peeked underneath the flimsy comforter). But there was no closet. Instead, wire hangers dangled from a saw-toothed swing arm bolted to the wall. (I kept thinking how angry those hangers would have made Joan Crawford…)
***
…I’m certain the manager never believed we were married – well, not to each other, at least – and probably peered at our flight through the corner office window, thinking that hair rollers on a rendezvous had been a tacky touch.
A Wintry Outing
The Carol of the Birds
published
Victoria
– National magazine
December 1999
I once asked an ornithologist friend how birds who do not migrate in winter manage to stay warm. She said they fluff up and circulate the warm air through their feathers. Since humans don’t have this option, I was a little surprised to find myself leaving my cozy bed before sun-up one December morning to join a group of birdwatchers I had never met and spend a long day in the frozen countryside, counting bird species – but it was time for the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count.
On Christmas Day in 1900, 27 conservationists, concerned about the preservation of birds, set forth from their homes to try the relatively new invention of binoculars and see how many birds they could sight and identify in one day – the first official Christmas Bird Count. The Audubon Society has held the bird count ever since…
Easing into the classics
published
Times Leader
– Wilkes-Barre, PA newspaper
Jan 1995
Classical music doesn’t bite.
Afraid to attend a classical concert? Well, as one musician visiting Wilkes-Barre recently advised, “Just sit and see what happens, even if you daydream during the music. We don’t care if you clap between the movements.”
Those last words may seem sacrilege to the well-initiated classical music concertgoer. For those who hesitate to take part in the experience, however, for those who may not even realize that this music is written in “movements” - sections of a composition roughly equivalent to chapters of a book – this was the advice of Loretta O’Sullivan, cellist with the Four Nations Ensemble, a chamber ensemble with national reputation…
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…coming off a concert “high” and after Plummer’s sobering words, Barbara Morris, a frequent Four Nations concertgoer, was enjoying her luncheon when suddenly she said to her companions, “What would we do, where would we be without music?”
She stopped chewing, thought for a moment, then visibly shivered. No one wanted to answer the question.
The Three Stooges, Ambler, Pennsylvania: Star Trekking
published
HubPages Network
Originally published 2012
Savory Sentiment
published
Frag Lit
– Online magazine of fragmentary writing
Fall 2007 issue