When I was quite young, I thought the clouds were created by the billowing smoke drifting out of factories, supplying the world with all sorts of things. These plumes looked like clouds and acted like clouds, so why would they not be clouds? A similarly misinformed conclusion, I was confident for some time that the world existed in black and white up to about 1960, informed by my only insight of the period being through black and white movies. One more: before I knew that fac

Tutor fears are here. Once a year, brave English tutors confess their fears to me, and the result is a rediculous story. Enjoy, and be unafraid. Be very unafraid. Carl secured the last restraint on the kiddy roller coaster, walked over to the control panel, and dispatched The Sloth on an empty test-run before the park’s gates opened. The animal clicked and crawled along the tracks, conserving energy before the guests arrived. Such a moody beast, Carl thought. Remembering th

“Oh, it’s nice to see that your generation is not as lazy as we thought.” I’ve got to ask, “What is with people nowadays?” . . . I am sorry, but please explain to me why people think they can come up to you and say things like that. If you are wondering where my example comes from, it was the old lady at the Vons in Clovis . . . Like, really, I'm over here picking out deodorant, and you decide that was the perfect time to tell me. Like, come on, lady, there is a time and plac

Rob Juarez pulled up to the shinning monument of physical media, Videolopolis. The chrome and glass gargantuan of a super store was a treasure trove of all things Blu ray, DVD, laserdisk, CD, cassette, and of course VHS. Rob was a fanatic for all things physical and heard that Videolopolis' selection was second to none. He spent about an hour wandering the labyrinth of shelves and floors. Still, Rob felt like he had only seen a quarter of what Videolopolis had to offer. All i

In the summer of 2025, I took a month-long trip throughout Europe, taking trains through eight different countries. On one of the final days of my time there, I found myself sitting in a Barcelona Taco Bell, directly across the street overshadowed by the towering la Sagrada Familia cathedral of famed architect Antonio Gaudí. As I write this, I am reminded of the guilt I felt in that moment. Although, at the time, I could not place exactly the nature of it. Now, though, I unde

As Springtime arrives, the ground grows weak and can no longer hold back the creatures that flail their many arms or gyrate their limbless bodies to break through the surface to greet the Worm Moon. Consequently, in this sixth issue of Delectable Discourse, where I ask college students a scrumptious new question each month, I asked the following question: In light of the upcoming Worm Moon, which is the full moon in March, when was the last time you picked up a worm or other

“What is love, Papá?” Celio had just gotten home from Kingston Canyon Elementary school and was waiting for her father to come home from work to talk to him. She did it so often now that it became a routine, one that was a comfort, especially since her mom started picking up the afternoon loads at the hospital. Talking to her father was her secret place. “What is love, papá?” she asked, leaning over her father’s shoulder, who now sat with his coffee-filled mug on th

On August 11 th , 1919, the first president of the Weimar Republic of Germany, Friedrich Ebert, signed into effect the Weimar Constitution. This constitution detailed a representative democracy with provisions commonplace in many governments of this sort. Nationally, power was split between the executive and legislative branches. The executive branch consisted of a nationally elected president and a chancellor who was appointed by the president and was required to cosign on a

Valentine’s Day is loved and dreaded by many, so in this fifth issue of Delectable Discourse , where I ask college students a scrumptious new question each month, I asked the following: If you had to replace Valentine’s Day with another holiday, what would it be called, and how would it be celebrated? “Now you got me thinking. I’d make it Frog Day—a day where you celebrate frogs because they are amazing. They are neat creatures that actually provide a lot, and I think they de

Okay, Edna. Just relax, maybe you’re just having a nightmare or something. Let’s just retrace how we got here . Edna Beezler tried to remember how she got to the unnerving sight before her. Winter was her favorite time to take walks, as the soft snowfall put her mind at ease when she needed some time to simply think. The calming atmosphere was disrupted by a buzzing in her ears, and the snow began to fiercely pick up. Once the flash blizzard subsided and her vision was

The holidays were a one-Christmas-tree ordeal when I was a kid. My brothers would trudge through the dry snow in their bunny boots and snow shoes, I would trail behind, and together we would pick a tree, but the trees we chose were not plushy farm-grown varieties like the Douglas Fir, White Spruce, or Scotch Pine. No, the trees we picked grew in the woods around our house and had levels, like those tiered cookie trays at Christmas parties, and their branches didn’t arrange th

Tis the season for watching cheesy romantic movies where a spiritless big-town man moves to a small town where he falls in love with a small-town girl who believes in the spirit of Christmas. These movies all seem to focus on destroying the non-belief in the spirit of Christmas, leaving everyone jolly and reinspired to engage in capitalism. Many Christmas movies center on the trope where the responsibility of being Santa Claus is passed on to someone who is unwilling, so in t