Tag Archives: James L’Etoile
That Moment When You Realize 2016 Isn’t a Complete Dumpster Fire
The world, according to my social media timeline, is on the brink of The End of Days, politically, socially — hell, even the Girl Scouts announced a partnership with a cereal company to produce a thin mint flavored breakfast flakes. The Mayan’s were right, they just missed the date by a year or so. There […]
The Season of Trolling
You know that insurance commercial with the fisherman who pops up with a dollar bill on the end of his line, taunting his clients to grab it? Then he jerks the cash bait away at the last moment, saying “You’ve got to be quicker than that.” Most times, I am that person, the one who […]
In Prison — Seeing Is Believing
What happens in prison usually stays in prison. Kinda like a bad Las Vegas honeymoon. Nobody wants to know the depths of the debauchery that goes on in either place. When I worked as a department of corrections administrator, we were often burnt at the stake when a criminal decided to do a bad thing. […]
Why I Don’t Post About Politics
There are a few topics I try to avoid on social media. Religion, Sex and Politics–the holy trifecta of hot button issues. They are intertwined so deeply that you can’t tug on one, without pulling a thread on the other. But recent events in the political arena (arena as in circus) left me scratching my […]
5 Things I Learned in Prison
Time in prison is supposed to “teach” you things, right? That’s why it was originally called the penitentiary — as in penance. A place to reflect on one’s life and the path not taken. Some lessons are learned the hard way. The weak, meek and mild won’t survive in prison. Inmates quickly develop survival mechanisms […]
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Respect, and I’m not talking about the Aretha Franklin classic, but something just as deadly. Outside of drug deals, there are more stabbings in prison over respect, or more precisely the lack of respect, than nearly any other motivation. This very unscientific finding is based upon years of “picking up the pieces” after a stabbing […]
Where Have All The Convicts Gone?
I grew up in a time of convicts. These days, a convict is hard to find. Convicts lived by a code that governed their conduct on the streets and in prison. Not that convicts weren’t dangerous criminals — they were, and their numbers included notorious murders, robbers and thieves. And they played by the rules. Rules? The […]
How To Haunt Your Neighbors
There is a ghost in the machine. That’s exactly what a neighbor is thinking right about now. And they should, because I’m haunting them. Home automation do-dads are a neat little addition to take care of routine business. Automatic Roomba vacuums scurry about the house picking up the dust and dirt left behind by their […]
Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned
“Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been ages since my last confession.” From behind a thin curtain, I swore I heard snoring. The dim light in my confessional made it impossible to see if the Great Confessor was dead asleep, or if there was a rumbling of a small earthquake. “Father, are […]
The Real Light At The End Of The Tunnel
There’s a point in my writing process when I get to that “happy place” near the end of the manuscript. I know how the story is going to end, who dies–who survives and what rubble is left behind. It should be a “happy place” with 90,000 words all tucked in and put to rest in […]
James L'Etoile 