His whole life was art — Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. For instance, sometimes you’re ready to leave the thrift store but your wife is not, so you sigh and head back to the book section and once again scan the shelves, hoping something interesting will pop out at…

The real magic was the friend we decapitated along the way — “You’re not a magician, are you?” Morty asked as soon as I introduced myself. “Because I specified ‘No Magicians.’” “No,” I replied, “But when I was a kid I watched that TV show about a crime solving magician.” “The one with Bill Bixby.” Morty nodded and leaned back, eyeing me…

Letting my geek flag fly — Just out of college I worked at a chain restaurant (not TGI Fridays but it was owned and influenced by TGI Fridays). And that experience caused flashbacks the first time I watched Office Space. Manager: Brian, for example, has thirty seven pieces of flair, okay. And a terrific smile. Jennifer…

Computer errors plus time equals comedy — If you don’t know the name, you know his work. Mike Schur was a writer and producer of The Office (and also played Dwight’s cousin Mose). He went on to run Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place. In an article on The Ringer, Schur talked about creating…

How I humiliated myself by winning a TV game show — I was never much of an artist. Sure, I drew a TARDIS as my big project for a High School art class. And as retroactively embarrassing as that may be (or maybe it’s cool now?), that’s got nothing on the big one: my spectacular nerd failure on NATIONAL TV. I’d…

Literary Star Trek’s equivalent to Get Back? I know I’m not the only one who got chills watching Paul McCartney noodling around on his bass as the song “Get Back” spontaneously arrived from the aether into our world. More than just chills, that moment in Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary…

The joy of Jerry Goldsmith’s music for Star Trek — The Motion Picture Christmas day, 1979. I still remember coming around the corner, my younger brother running slightly ahead, to see how many packages we’d find beneath the tree. And there were a good number. But what stood out to…

A short story with dubious motives “What is this?” She showed me a wadded up roll of something. Pastel shapes on it — were they puppies? I shrugged, muttered “I don’t know,” then turned to stuff my pajama pants into the top drawer of the unfamiliar dresser. “Did you pack…