Humor – Charles Lewis Radke

I’m Dying Here

12-minute read In my mid-thirties I once got cruelly nauseous in the middle of the night. Kidney stones, it turned out, no bigger than bee stingers. This was a Sunday during the summer. I remember it was a summer Sunday because I was in a men’s summer baseball league that played its games only onContinue reading “I’m Dying Here”

Mr. Porky Sunshine

Image credit/Scott Wong “All the fat is the Lord’s.” –Leviticus 3:16 We parked our van at a trailhead on one side of a very busy road, which many here consider the local Autobahn for gamblers and gravel trucks. Crossing it, even with traffic stopped, takes nerve, and it’s not a place for people who hateContinue reading “Mr. Porky Sunshine”

The King of Luxury (Vinyl)

At sixteen years and counting, Perry has gone full grumpy on us. He snaps at every groomer who gets near his face, which is why his damp maw now looks like a pot scrubber.

Pretty Bird

Photo source: https://petcomments.com/parakeet-cage/ Published June 30, 2021, Sierra Nevada Review 32, 127-137 When I was a graduate student in South Florida, I had it in my mind to write a short story about an embalmer who falls in love with a dead woman. But it wasn’t just any dead woman, which would have been creepy.Continue reading “Pretty Bird”

Danger Is (Not) My Business

Chuck RadkeWord Count: 2,790 One evening, Karen and I sat with friends in a bourgeois little wine bar and laughed until we cried over a woman who lost a finger in a mishap with a folding chair. This wasn’t a thing that happened right in front of us. It was a story we were hearingContinue reading “Danger Is (Not) My Business”

No Shot for You

Last Friday, after receipt of an email from a local school district’s office of human resources, I successfully registered for and secured a slot for my Covid vaccination at another county’s department of public health. I answered every item on the form forthrightly. The vaccine was only for educators over the age of 50, withContinue reading “No Shot for You”

Renaissance Man

(20-minute read) A few nights ago, I was in bed reading a James Salter novel when Karen FaceTimed me all the way from the other side of the house. “We hike tomorrow,” she said, but it was more like she whispered it, like one international spy to another on a burner phone. For some reason,Continue reading “Renaissance Man”

Five Times Daily

Five Times Daily for Perry Karen has committed us this year to entertaining more, which many middle-aged folks consider the logical next step after they lose their children to college or, in our case, iPhones. Our three kids are still in the house with us (we think), a fact frequently confirmed when they appear inContinue reading “Five Times Daily”