Arcs and Loops: TCR at Sea
Often we think that the paths we choose are straight—northerly from Florida to Maryland, in the case of the transit of my friend’s boat, Castaway—but in reality our lives are made of arcs, loops, and retracings.
Dispatches
The Killers: TCR at Sea
Fred could not pilot his own boat during the inspection. Fred had never done vital maintenance; the generator alone was a rusted hulk with rotting hoses. Fred was an aging guy who owned a chain of carpet stores, or some such, and was dowdy. A real Rotarian.
We Need Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer, ASAP
Admirers of Reinhold Niebuhr have included Martin Luther King Jr., Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, John McCain, James Comey. “He’s one of my favorite philosophers,” Barack Obama told David Brooks, also a Niebuhr fan.
The Displacement of Stories: TCR at Sea
As the mechanics got back to tackling an electrical problem they had identified and draining water and crud from a diesel tank, B asked me, “Have you heard the stories about me? Do you know who I am?”
An Existentialist Private Eye Writes His Memoirs
Steve Vender is a tough, daring private investigator. It feels strangely right that the book most important to him is Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death.
Hold Fire: TCR at Sea
I had never heard of an American warship blowing away an American yacht in a heavily-used American waterway, but I felt relieved there had not been an incident.
What Doctors Get Wrong About Borderline Personality Disorder
A vivid new look at borderline, the most maligned and misunderstood of the personality disorders
You Think You Can Recognize Evil?
“Genetics loads the gun. Personality and psychology aim it. And experiences pull the trigger.”
Our Insidious Fuels: TCR at Sea
Chris continued to worry about why the boat would not come up on plane. He was willing to have her pulled from the water for inspection, but that could not happen before Monday, and we could not know how long she would need service. He had begun to suspect the fuel—either contaminated fuel at the last slow fill-up, or that the dregs at the bottoms of the tanks were stirred up in the grounding or the prop strike and had clogged the filters.
Welcome to the Plug-in California
In the spectrum between the Dude too cool for the Eagles and the cabbie riding to Bill Szymczyk’s final mixes from Studio C, Lij Shaw was riding shotgun and saying: Turn it up!