The normalization of bad behavior is costing us all. Continue reading Theirs Ain’t No Mudd Club
All posts by rexmerritt
No Rainbow. No Pot of Gold.
California is not sending it best people across the Mojave Desert into Nevada. Not visitors, necessarily, but those hopefuls intending to relocate.
For the most part, Californians flocking from the Golden State to settle in the Mojave aren’t the most sterling. Once here a sad portion of them tarnish the Silver State. Continue reading No Rainbow. No Pot of Gold.
The Sour Fruit of Regression
Was February 2022 the worst Black History Month ever? That was a rhetorical question. Continue reading The Sour Fruit of Regression
Samples of His Seraglio
A Las Vegas acquaintance sought to pry some odd information from me. He asked the male equivalent for boudoir pictures. Until he’d wondered aloud, who knew one existed? Continue reading Samples of His Seraglio
Eighteen
Coincidences certainly enliven life. Especially if one is aware of them as they occur. Continue reading Eighteen
On Our Side of the Line
Perception must depend on location and familiarity as well as with who surrounds oneself. This realization has become even more pronounced since moving cross-country.
Before coming to Nevada, I’d already accumulated years in the Southwest. Though after whatever needed conducting here was finished, I scrammed back to New York. Now as a Silver State resident, the region’s peculiarities are more present and therefore more insistent.
Especially among non-landed citizens. It’s as if they’re intentionally indifferent towards recognizing individuals, preferring indistinction and keeping certain groups amorphous. Continue reading On Our Side of the Line
The Spear Carriers
Chewing the fat with long-time Las Vegas residents never tires. By that I don’t mean retirees who’ve descended here from elsewhere. Those people invariably have nothing interesting or worthwhile conversationally to add. Just complaints about today and regrets regarding opportunities deferred then dismissed through lengthy delay.
There’s only so much wistfulness one should hear until it starts burdening the present. Besides, once here and once monotony sets in too many of them become pill-poppin’ day drunks. Continue reading The Spear Carriers
Away from the Range
At the beginning of December, the National Finals Rodeo returned to Las Vegas after a year’s absence. In 2020, Covid conditions pushed it to Texas. The Lone Star State offered less stringent health conditions than Nevada.
It still does. Continue reading Away from the Range
Commemorations
What holidays haven’t Americans hollowed out?
This year plenty of major merchandisers started displaying their Yuletide offerings and running Christmas ads so early these infringed on Halloween. And didn’t the whole month of November seem a ceaseless promotion for Black Friday? Continue reading Commemorations
Gone Shadows
Autumn stretches a lighter hand across the Mojave than she does upon the Northeast.
Although the desert days shorten and the shadows lengthen as well deepen earlier, the chill which accompanies these shifts lack the same heralding of great changes which will occur in New York.
Except in the dispatch that follows. Continue reading Gone Shadows