A New Era of Circus? Feld Entertainment made a surprising, but not necessarily unexpected announcement. The present show traces its roots to 1871, which was the first season that P. Barnum fielded a circus, so some combination of its present title has been touring for over 146 years! Circus and the City. And, in my neighborhood, the Boston Circus Guild.

Writer, teacher, storyteller. That sums up my professional life here in New York City. The writing, both fiction and non, appears in The Mississippi Review, Glimmer Train, The Raven Chronicles, and Rosebud. The teaching is done at Hunter College, where I also earned an MFA studying with Peter Carey and Colum McCan. The live storytelling, though, is my heart and soul and it began at The Moth Story Slams. To be even more precise, it began with my benefactor, Mr Edgar Allan Poe.

Here I am, brain the size of a planet. Justice Roberts, the conservative Chief Justice was the surprising swing vote. The rest of the world may laugh at our lateness, and we still have a long way to go, but America is finally limping steadily towards universal health care.