We like birthdays because they behave. They sit on the calendar like obedient little fences: before this day you are “a child,” after this day you are “an adult,” and the world can stop thinking too hard. Paperwork smiles. Parents exhale. Governments file you into a drawer. Even you can point to the number and say, “There. That’s the moment I became something different.” It is a comforting story. It … Read the rest
From the vantage point of someone who has spent enough time in uniform to know what real threats look like, it’s always instructive to watch a much larger state invent imaginary ones. Some governments worry about missiles; the Northern Colossus worries about whether its citizens are having enough state-approved sex. Different risk matrices, same existential drama.
Their latest stroke of national genius is a full-spectrum campaign against the most dangerous … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ I remember working in a pub in Crawley, near Gatwick airport in London. Many years ago. I was by then probably in my early 30s. Yet, as they say, ‘everybody gets old, but you can stay immature forever.’ That would have been me back then.
I had lived in Bath during the 1970s, returned to the US to do a Master’s degree … Read the rest
By Eric LeRoy
Content 18+ I have always wondered why some people make a powerful impression on us and others don’t. Of course the effect can vary from person to person, and that’s a good thing: for example, it would be a real mess if every man fell in love with the same woman – to the exclusion of all others.
Just imagine it: the longed-for Wench-Princess-Nymphette standing on the … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ The gray days turn now to early darkness – light-swallowing afternoons that have me leaving the apartment with my dogs when it is still daylight and returning 30 minutes later to sudden winds and the pitch black of precocious night. These afternoons end quicker than friendships when talking about places like Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. Believe me, I know.
In the morning, … Read the rest
