I don’t have a TV. I can’t remember when I had one. This iPad is my screen.
Friday, October 9, 2026
I just got this book a few hours ago. Everyone has heard of Mary Oliver. I read maybe 10 poems. They’ve already got me seeing things differently.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
The Student Journalists Who Never Let the Cornell Assault Case Go
The student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, covered the allegations of rape at a fraternity house since they were first made in 2024 and led the reporting on the case.
A photo I took of the basement bar at the Irish Center in Long Island City. There was a great documentary of Gerry Adams later upstairs. See it if you can. It’ll soon be on Kanopy the woman who made it said.
Saturday, September 26, 2026
That’s a non-alcoholic Guinness. My friend from Cleveland no longer drinks alcohol either. We had two with our perfect sandwiches. Old Town on 18th Street, a walk from my apartment, is a perfect place.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
At the breakfast place I frequent.
Saturday, September 19, 2026
By the front desk at my local library branch. Hard to find a seat most days.
'We go to college to be given one more chance to learn to read in case we haven't learned in high school. Once we have learned to read, the rest can be trusted to add itself unto us.'
I’ve been a schoolteacher. Right after college in 1969, like a lot of guys, I taught school as an alternative to serving in Vietnam. I was married with a week-old daughter on graduation day. I taught grade school English in Cleveland, Ohio for six years. After that, I ran, eventually owned, a longstanding bookstore in downtown Cleveland. It felt something like Three Lives in the West Village. I went on to found an alternative weekly paper like the Voice, also in Cleveland. It lasted 12 years. Twenty-one years ago I moved here, armed with an idea and a prototype for a national book magazine. Like a Rolling Stone for books. I never raised the huge amount of money I needed. I then worked for a media company, editing a couple of neighborhood weeklies, more than once using my editor’s space to talk about city kids and reading. Between the editorial jobs, I taught English for a year here in Manhattan at a Catholic boys’ high school with mostly minority kids. I was terrible at discipline. But sometimes when we found a book or a story we liked, it all came together.
gunlockeb@yahoo.com